WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner and Rep. Scott Tipton on Monday slammed President Obama’s 2016 budget proposal, which they say is filled with the same tax-and-spend policies that have failed to grow the middle class.
The record $4 trillion proposal, which includes tax hikes totaling $2 trillion over the next 10 years, seeks to raise taxes on the cigarettes, corporations and the wealthy to fund increased federal spending aimed at the middle class.
But Tipton, R-Cortez, said the budget is filled with the president’s “same tired, failed policies” that have led to “the lowest labor participation rate in decades, stagnant wages, and households with less wealth than they began the decade with.”
“With millions of Americans struggling to earn a living because of these policies, and future generations saddled with an unprecedented national debt burden, you would hope that the president would recognize that it’s time for fresh ideas,” Tipton said in a statement. “Instead, it is Groundhog Day.
“Instead of continuing to grow government, the budget should chart a more sustainable course that grows the middle class by investing in the ingenuity, independence and work ethic of the American people. Let’s empower families and small businesses through bottom-up growth, not Washington bureaucrats through bigger government,” Tipton said.
Gardner, also a Colorado Republican, described the budget as a “disappointment,” while arguing that it does not offer a solution to the disparity between the stagnant working wages and the faster-growing corporate balance sheets and stock market.
“It’s crucial that the Congress and the president come together on a budget that actually works towards addressing that gap,” Gardner said in a statement. “Instead, we got a grab bag of the president’s spending priorities and no real plan for the future.”
Sen. Michael Bennet, a Colorado Democrat, described the proposal as a “starting point,” and said that it “makes it clear that we have more work to do to help Colorado’s middle-class families, who have continued to struggle even as the economy has recovered.”
Bennet, who serves on the United States Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, applauded the budget for fully funding the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
“This is a no-brainer for Coloradans who understand that conserved land and wide-open spaces are a huge economic driver for our state,” Bennet said in a statement.
The LWCF, which Bennet describes as “one of the most successful programs with a track record of protecting our land and water,” is not funded by taxpayer dollars and does not add to the national debt. An amendment sponsored by Bennet to permanently reauthorize the fund fell short of passing the Senate by one vote last week.
While Obama’s budget would leave a $474 billion deficit for fiscal 2016, the Republican-led Congress will make a proposal of its own in the spring with an eye on achieving balance. They will look to reform costly entitlements such as Medicare and Social Security, which remain the biggest drivers of the national debt.
Michael Cipriano is a student at American University in Washington, D.C., and an intern for The Durango Herald.
