Isakson: I Call President Obama's Bluff

'I'm Stepping Up, and I Want to Call the President's Bluff Because I Think We're At a Serious Point in Our History Where We Need to Be Realistic About What Confronts Us in Terms of Spending and the National Debt'

Mar 04, 2011

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., called on the President to get realistic over the fiscal crisis facing our nation and the tough choices and sacrifices that Congress and the President must make to solve the problem, including cutting federal spending, curtailing the job-killing over-regulation by federal agencies and addressing the need to reform entitlement programs such as Social Security.

On June 27, 2010, President Obama stated, “I hope some of those folks who are hollering about the deficits and debt will step up because I’m calling their bluff.” Isakson recalled the President’s claim on the Senate floor and responded with the following statement:

Isakson: “I’m stepping up, and I want to call the President’s bluff because I think we’re at a serious point in our history where we need to be realistic about what confronts us in terms of spending and the national debt.

“The biggest bluff this year was the budget presented by the President which did not take any of the recommendations of his own Deficit Commission and, instead, locked in the higher spending we’ve seen over the last two years and made it permanent calling it a ‘spending freeze.’

“The American people are asking us to step up. They want us to do what they’ve been doing over the last three years—sit around the kitchen table, reorganize priorities and spend within their means. H.R.1 in the House, which made $61 billion in cuts, was a modest start at a long-term process but it sent us in the right direction and called the President’s bluff.

“My Republican colleagues and I have made proposal after proposal in efforts to rein in federal spending. I don’t think it’s right to say that nobody has answered the call on deficit and debt reduction. We haven’t been bluffing anybody; neither did the President’s own Deficit Commission.

“I believe that we need to sit down and talk about the tough things, the shared sacrifice and the benefit that comes from responsibility, frugality and a commitment to the principles of our Founding Fathers. We should always remember the principle that less debt is better. We should never be a country controlled by those we owe.”

Isakson also addressed the need to cut spending, increase government revenue through economic growth and lower taxes and the importance of eliminating burdensome, overreaching regulations on American’s families and small businesses. He also expressed the need to put “everything on the table” when looking to cut spending, including entitlements. Isakson is a proponent of social security reform that would change eligibility while preserving benefits in order to save social security for future generations who have paid into the system. A similar approach was taken by President Ronald Reagan in 1983.

Isakson has introduced and cosponsored several pieces of legislation this year to try to rein in federal spending, reduce the debt and change the way Washington does business in terms of regulation and taxation:

• S.211, the Biennial Budgeting and Appropriations Act, would convert Congress’ annual spending process to a two-year cycle, with one year for appropriating federal dollars and the other year devoted to oversight of federal programs. This legislation is aimed at forcing Congress to become better stewards of the taxpayers’ money, thereby reducing reckless and wasteful spending.

• S.J.RES.3 would require Congress to balance the federal budget for the purpose of reducing the nation’s debt. The legislation would also prohibit deficit spending and tax increases unless overridden by two-thirds of the House and Senate.

• S.81, the Congressional Budget Accountability Act, would guarantee that any unspent funds from senators’ office budgets must be used to pay down the national debt or reduce the deficit. Under the current rules, senators can return leftover office funds to the Treasury at the end of the fiscal year, but the money goes back into the general fund. Isakson’s bill would require that these leftover funds go to pay down the debt or reduce the deficit.

• S.245, the CAP Act of 2011, would establish federal spending limits that will be gradually reduced over 10 years to 20.6 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product, the historical average of federal spending.

• S.299, the REINS Act, would require more accountability and oversight from the Executive Branch and federal agencies and to prevent them from unilaterally imposing burdensome, costly regulations on America’s families, businesses and local governments.