WASHINGTON, DC - Congressman Leonard Lance (NJ-7) issued the following statement today on U.S. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s fiscal year (FY) 2012 budget proposal:

 "It has been my long-standing belief that our country faces tremendous fiscal challenges.  With a national debt of more than $14 trillion and growing, and an annual deficit at $1.6 trillion, our current levels of federal spending are not sustainable.  The budget blueprint released this morning by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan is a serious and honest approach to bringing fiscal sanity back to our Nation.  This is in stark contrast to fiscal efforts put forth by the Democratic leadership who last year failed to pass a budget for the first time in our Nation's modern era.  

"It is my hope that moving forward we can have a serious, bipartisan discussion on spending, debt and deficits.  We must move away from more spending, more borrowing and higher taxes and toward a balanced budget, job creation and a stronger economy."