The Congressional Budget Office has completed its latest analysis of the government’s books and it isn’t good.  The federal government is on pace to run a $1.5 trillion deficit this year, $186 billion higher than last year’s deficit – an increase that can be attributed entirely to Washington Democrats’ job-destroying spending binge.  (The House Budget Committee has put out a detailed breakdown of the CBO analysis.)

The report represents a chilling reminder of the size and scope of our fiscal challenges, and it comes just hours after President Obama proposed even more “stimulus” spending in his State of the Union address.  Speaker Boehner responded to the new CBO report by questioning the Obama Administration’s decision to follow the president’s request for an increase in the debt limit with a call for new “stimulus” spending, rather than a commitment to work with Republicans to enact significant spending cuts and budget reforms:

“Earlier this month, the Obama Administration asked Congress to raise the debt limit.  Republicans responded by saying the American people won’t tolerate such an increase unless it's accompanied by major spending cuts and spending reforms.  Instead of committing last night to those spending cuts and reforms, the president called for more ‘stimulus’ spending.  It’s clear the president and his team haven’t gotten the message the American people sent in November: we can’t spend and borrow our way to prosperity.  To boost private-sector job creation and help the economy grow, we need to cut spending and enact serious budget reforms to ensure we keep cutting spending.”

The new majority is hard at work in its efforts to end Washington’s job-crushing spending binge: today, the House held another vote to save taxpayers money, a day after directing committees to cut spending to pre-‘stimulus,’ pre-bailout levels, or lower.

One of our leaders in this work is Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI), who delivered the Republican Address to the Nation last night.  In stark contrast to President Obama’s plea for additional ‘stimulus’ spending on top of a debt limit hike, Chairman Ryan outlined the need for fiscal discipline to promote job creation and get our economy moving again.  Here are some highlights from Chairman Ryan’s address, which you can watch here:

• “Delivering the GOP response to President Barack Obama on Tuesday, Janesville Republican Paul Ryan said the nation was on a path toward fiscal calamity, and he pledged his party's commitment to curb government and cut spending. … He dismissed the president’s talk Tuesday of targeted investments as big spending by another name, saying Democrats ‘want a federal government that controls too much, taxes too much and spends too much in order to do too much.’” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 1/26/11)

• “And with Ryan speaking from the House Budget Committee’s hearing room, Republicans could highlight their plans to slash federal spending in that room, and that panel’s failure to approve (or even propose) a budget resolution last year when Democrats were in charge.  ‘We are at a moment, where if government’s growth is left unchecked and unchallenged, America’s best century will be considered our past century,’ Ryan said.” (POLITICO, 1/25/11)

• “His [Ryan’s] remarks suggest that Republicans have no intention of backing off the spending cuts of which they’ve spoken for their first few months on the job. … Ryan also emphasized that spending cuts would have to precede any vote in Congress to raise the debt limit, the legal amount the United States can borrow to finance its deficit.” (The Hill, 1/25/11)

READ MORE:

Speaker Boehner Questions White House Decision to Follow Debt Limit Increase Request with Call for Increased “Stimulus” Spending
VIDEO: Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) Delivers Republican Address to the Nation
SOTU FACT: President Obama Has Accelerated the Job-Destroying Spending Spree in Washington