By Sen. Angus King, I-Maine
I returned to Washington last week after an eventful month of work in Maine that provided some great insights into the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. And while it’s always difficult to leave home, I arrived back in our nation’s capital last week reinvigorated by the common-sense thinking that I encountered so often during my visits across Maine. That same common-sense will guide me as I work on several issues that will have a substantial impact on our state and the country, including the looming fight over the federal budget.
The federal government is set to run out of money at the end of September unless Congress acts. Even though the 16 day government shutdown of October 2013 is estimated to have significantly reduced economic growth in the final quarter of 2013, we are openly flirting with the possibility of a second government shutdown just two years later. That means we are moving towards another predictable fiscal crisis, and it is one of my top priorities to ensure that Congress passes the spending measure required for the government to remain open.
In fact, I have joined with my colleagues in writing a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to request that he schedule bipartisan negotiations as soon as possible, so that we can work together to craft a responsible budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The budget passed by Congress earlier this year, unfortunately, was not a serious document. That budget locked in sequestration – the across-the-board spending cuts that indiscriminately axes funding to programs regardless of their effectiveness or necessity – for our nation’s important non-defense programs for another year and denied our national defense the long-term funding certainty it needs.
We need to pass a serious budget – a spending framework with balanced sequester relief that applies to both defense and non-defense programs.
I have been and will continue to be a strong advocate of eliminating sequestration. From national security to education programs like Head Start, sequestration only continues to hurt our country and it’s at our own peril that we ignore it.
That’s why I have been arguing for a budget that balances spending reductions and revenue increases. Fundamentally, there are three basic ways to get our fiscal house in order: one is to cut expenditures, the other is to increase revenues, and the third is to grow the economy in order to create more revenues. I think the answer has to be all of the above — we can’t cut our way to prosperity, we can’t tax our way out of the current mess, and we also can’t rely on growth alone. The problem that I have with the budget passed by Congress this year is that it only focuses on cuts, and completely leaves out the other possible solutions.
The two single greatest economic development projects in the history of this country were the GI bill after World War II and the Interstate Highway System. What did they have in common? Both were investments, and that’s what helped strengthen our economy. But with the budget proposal on the table now, Congress is proposing to cut expenditures for research and development, for education, and for job training. I just don’t think that’s responsible governance, and I certainly don’t think it’s going to lead to greater prosperity.
If we’re going continue to climb back from the Great Recession, our nation’s fiscal challenges require a serious approach to budgeting. That means a balanced approach that employs targeted cuts, revenue increases, and smart investments to gain a handle on our federal debt while protecting people and allowing our economy to expand and grow. That’s what this country deserves, and as Congress considers spending bills this fall, it’s what I will continue to work toward.
