WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), a member of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, released the following statement today in reaction to President Obama’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 budget:

"Following President Obama’s State of the Union address, Americans agreed we need more than just a change in tone in Washington; we need a change in policy. Today, President Obama proved once again a willingness to change policy is not on his agenda.

“The president delivered a budget to Congress that fails to confront the fiscal and economic challenges before us, ignores the recommendations of his own fiscal commission, increases spending and borrowing, proposes $1.6 trillion in new taxes, and doubles the national debt by the end of his 4-year term. The Obama Administration is touting its proposal to reduce the deficit by $1.1 trillion over the next 10 years, but that doesn’t amount to much when you consider this year alone we face a $1.6 trillion deficit.

“After appointing a bipartisan fiscal commission to examine our tax and entitlement systems – and then praising their proposal – President Obama’s budget yet again punts the tough choices needed to tackle the real budget busters like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. It speaks volumes that Erskine Bowles, the Democratic Chairman of the president’s commission said himself that this budget ‘goes nowhere near where they will have to go to resolve our fiscal nightmare.’

“We can no longer afford to humor this administration’s tendency to promise everything to everyone. I asked to be appointed to the Appropriations Committee in order to bring Kansas common sense and hard-nosed fiscal oversight to the appropriations process; let’s get to work.”

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