President Obama attacked Republicans for their desire to cut the government spending that "made this country great," while also faulting them for failing to "balance the budget."
Obama said that Republicans have "one message and that is, we're going to make sure that we cut people's taxes even more -- so that by every objective measure our deficit is worse and we will slash government investments that have made this country great," he argued, "not because it's going to balance the budget, but because it's driven by our ideological vision about how government should be. That's their agenda, pure and simple."
The president should avoid attacking budgets for failing to balance. Senate Democrats have refused to propose a budget of any kind in over 1,000 days. President Obama's budget included $3.6 trillion in new spending this year. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., proposed a plan to balance the budget in five years. The Republican Study Committee has also proposed a plan to balance the budget in five years.
"This president is completely irresponsible," Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., told The Washington Examiner in a discussion of Obama's budgetary policies. "He's been in office three years. The problems that are facing us, that have us on the edge of the cliff -- he's avoided. It's a cowardly thing to do as a world leader not to address the big problems . . . I really think it's disgraceful."
DeMint observed that Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has crafted a "a balance [budget plan] that’ll pass," but added that he doesn't believe the country can wait "have 27 years or 9 years to balance the budget" as it does under Ryan's plan.
The White House has attacked Ryan's budget plan for "making extremely deep cuts to critical programs needed to create jobs and strengthen the middle class."
