FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, March 23, 2007

Isakson Votes Against Budget Resolution, Voices Dismay at Senate’s Refusal to Control Federal Spending
‘We Simply Cannot Raise Taxes on America’s Families and Businesses’

WASHINGTON – Expressing dismay over the Senate’s plan to increase spending and raise taxes, U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) today voted against final passage of the Budget Resolution, which passed by a vote of 52 to 47.

This year’s Budget Resolution, which serves as a blueprint for Congress when it decides how to appropriate federal dollars later in the year, was drafted by Senate Democrats who packed it with heavy spending and the largest tax increase in U.S. history.

“We must take large and immediate steps to end the reckless spending that is threatening the future of our nation. Congress must become better stewards of the taxpayers’ money," Isakson said. “We also simply cannot raise taxes on America’s families and businesses. In doing so, we abandon the very strategy that has created jobs, allowed businesses to expand, left more money in the pockets of our families and spurred unprecedented economic prosperity for the entire nation.”   

The Budget Resolution increases non-defense discretionary spending by almost $150 billion over the next five years and adds $2.4 trillion to the gross national debt. It also contains no provisions for reducing entitlement spending.

The Senate also rejected a number of amendments to extend existing tax relief past 2010. Isakson voted in favor of those amendments, including a vote to permanently repeal the estate tax. If Congress fails to extend tax relief past 2010, this Budget Resolution will raise taxes by $700 billion beginning in 2011.

“The tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 lowered tax rates for individuals, businesses, dividends and capital gains, eliminated the marriage penalty and scaled back the alternative minimum tax and the death tax,” Isakson said. “Critics said we were giving a handout to the rich, but the facts are these tax cuts created jobs, allowed businesses to expand and left more money in the pockets of our families.We must continue our nation's unprecedented economic prosperity by making these tax cuts permanent.” 

The Senate also failed to pass an amendment to the Budget Resolution by Isakson and Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) that would have ensured that the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, also known as SCHIP, did not fall short in providing important benefits to children as a result of some states using the program to cover adults. 

“Our amendment would have taken the SCHIP program back to where it was intended – for children,” Isakson said. “As the years have gone by, some states have chosen to enroll adults without children in their SCHIP programs, the result of which has compromised this program and taken money that was intended to go to children and sent it to adults.”

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