SOTU Analysis: Responsibly reducing our deficit

In this series of blog posts, Senator Coons’ legislative staff shares their analysis of the President’s State of the Union address with Delawareans.

In last night’s State of the Union address, President Obama underlined the importance of responsible deficit reduction.  He reminded Americans that “over the last few years, both parties have worked together to reduce the deficit by more than $2.5 trillion – mostly through spending cuts, but also by raising tax rates on the wealthiest one percent of Americans.  As a result, we are more than halfway towards the goal of $4 trillion in deficit reduction that economists say we need to stabilize our finances.”  He said is now time for Congress to “finish the job” and end the cycle of “drifting from one manufactured crisis to the next.”

Senator Coons, a member of the Senate Budget Committee, believes that our national debt and deficit are dangerous and unsustainable. 

Democrats, Republicans and independent experts all agree that excessive debt hurts our competitiveness and crowds out critical investments in our country's future, in areas like education, infrastructure, research and development.  That’s why Chris believes it is essential for members of both parties to come together and support balanced, responsible deficit reduction to get our nation’s finances back in order. 

Facing the fiscal cliff

It’s hard to watch the news lately without hearing about the “fiscal cliff” awaiting Americans early next year — more than $500 billion in automatic spending cuts, tax increases and other fiscal changes set to kick in starting in January.

These questions, coupled with the paralyzing federal budget deficit and national debt, will have a significant impact on Delawareans.

Although I’ve worked on deficit reduction consistently during my two years in the Senate, my staff and I have invested additional time and energy these last few months preparing for the immediate economic choices required by the events of the fiscal cliff. Just as we do with our legislative briefing emails, I wanted you to have access to some of the same background and analysis that I do.

We’ve put together a white paper on the fiscal cliff — a primer on the economic issues Congress and the President are now working to confront — to give you a better idea of what to expect.

Click here for your copy of the white paper and to share your opinion on the fiscal cliff.              

As it stands now, our budget deficit and national debt are simply unsustainable. A $1.3 trillion deficit and $16.3 trillion debt are unacceptable. This level of debt hurts our nation’s competitiveness, causes interest rates to rise over the long term and crowds out critical investments in our country’s future.

Congress should get a big, bipartisan deal done now to reduce our deficit and avert the very significant impact of the fiscal cliff, rather than waiting until next year.

It seems like an easy choice to simply kick the can down the road again, but the reality is that our country will need to make an array of tough decisions about our competing economic priorities over the next few months – priorities like keeping taxes low, investing in critical services, reducing our unsustainable annual deficits and stabilizing our debt.

I hope you’ll download my new white paper and share your opinion on the fiscal cliff.

There is no doubt that we can keep our nation moving forward, but we’ll have to work together to do it. Balance is the only responsible solution.

Best –
Chris Coons
U.S. Senator

Video: Senator Coons talks fiscal cliff on CBS This Morning

NEW YORK — Senator Coons was interviewed about the "fiscal cliff" on CBS This Morning Saturday, describing his work with a bipartisan group of senators hoping to make real, rsponsible progress on reducing the deficit and minimizing the impact on Americans of a series of tax and legal changes due to take effect later this year. Watch below:

Budget Analysis: Deficit reduction

President Obama’s budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year (FY13) hit Capitol Hill this week, hot off the presses. Senator Coons reviewed the blueprint and praised it for responsibly reducing our country’s dangerous deficits while still investing in America’s long-term competitiveness.

After digesting the budget proposal’s many charts and numbers, our team has identified a few key highlights for Delaware, starting with responsible deficit reduction.

President Obama’s budget plan would save more than $4 trillion over 10 years, stabilizing public debt at 76.5% of GDP by 2022, with deficits declining to an average of 3% of GDP per year. 

This blueprint reduces the deficit in four primary ways:

• Winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nearly $850 billion is saved in the Overseas Contingency Operations accounts, which primarily relates to war funding.
• Returning to Clinton-era tax levels on the wealthiest Americans.  Some $206 billion is saved by ending the George W. Bush-era tax cuts for families making over $250,000 a year.
• Reforming entitlement programs. The budget includes close to $600 billion in savings on health and other mandatory spending programs.
• Staying within Congressional budget limits. The President continues the savings plan established by Congress in the Budget Control Act, passed last year, which saves over $1 trillion through caps on discretionary spending.

Video: Senators Coons and Kirk debate a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution

U.S. Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) spoke on the Senate floor on Wednesday to debate amending the Constitution to require the federal government to balance its budget.

Senator Coons urges supercommittee to “go big” on deficit reduction

Senator Coons joined more than 40 of his colleagues from both the Senate and the House at a bipartisan press conference today urging the 12-member debt-reduction super committee to “go big” in recommending ways to reduce our annual deficits and national debt.

The committee, consisting of Republicans and Democrats from both chambers of Congress, is working to develop a plan by November 23, 2011 to save at least $1.2 trillion over a 10-year period.

Deficit and debt reduction has been a top priority for Chris, who is also a member of the Senate Budget Committee.

Earlier this month, Chris joined 44 of his Senate colleagues on a letter to the super committee members urging for at least $4 trillion in savings.

Click here to learn more about Chris’ work on the Budget Committee. 

Video: Chris talks about jobs, deficit reduction on MSNBC

Chris was on MSNBC Tuesday afternoon to discuss President Obama's plans for jobs and deficit reduction. He also discussed his efforts to persuade leaders of African nations to oppose unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state at the United Nations. Watch the video below.

Video: Chris discusses debt ceiling deal on CNBC

Senator Coons appeared on CNBC Monday afternoon to discuss the proposed deal to raise the nation's debt ceiling and avert a default crisis that would have devastating impacts on Americans. He was joined by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) in the interview. 

Video: Consequences of default

In a new video for the Senate Democratic Caucus, Senator Coons explains the difficult choices a default would force the government to make.

Video: Chris offers support for plan to avert default crisis

Chris was on MSNBC Monday afternoon talking with Dylan Ratigan about the plan for averting the default crisis offered Monday by Senate Democrats.

Though the Senator believes it’s unfortunate that Congress wasn't able to get the bigger, $4 trillion deal that he, the President, Senate Democrats and at least a dozen Senate Republicans were looking to reach, he believes we have to move forward and focus on something that can succeed in averting this default crisis. Senator Reid’s plan does that.

Watch video of his interview below: