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In the month since President Obama’s State of the Union, we have learned that the President’s message to the American people is simply political rhetoric. On January 25th, the President uttered these words:  “Now, the final, critical step in winning the future is to make sure we aren't buried under a mountain of debt.”

However the President’s 2012 budget is full of fiscal pipe dreams; raising $1.6 trillion in new taxes aimed at businesses and families and almost two-thirds of deficit reduction happening in 2016 – after President Obama leaves office.

Where are the cuts?

If fiscal sanity is to be restored we need to do more. Erskine Bowles, the Democratic chairman of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform shares a similar view; he said the White House budget request goes “nowhere near where they will have to go to resolve our fiscal nightmare.” 

Americans have tightened their belts and it is time the federal government does the same, we need fiscal restraint now. However, isn’t happening.

The President’s proposed budget plans to spend $3.729 trillion, which is $90 billion less than 2011 levels – that’s up 25 percent from 2008 levels. Even though the 2012 budget sees some reduction, do not be fooled by the President’s rhetoric; spending has fallen because stimulus spending is winding down.  

These numbers do not equate with the message voters’ sent in the November election of less government spending to spur economic growth. 

It is necessary that we recall how we arrived here in the first place, over one trillion dollars was essentially wasted in the failed stimulus bill.  Although Americans were promised more jobs as a result, unemployment has consistently remained over nine percent nationally for 21 straight months.  Stimulus spending and other non-security spending has increased by a staggering 84 percent.  In the four years prior to House Republican’s assuming control in Congress, the national debt increased by 63 percent, an unprecedented figure that will fall upon future generations of American taxpayers.  For fiscal year 2011 alone, the Administration predicts that the federal deficit will reach $1.645 trillion.

While America faces a frightening outlook on our fiscal future, there is a straightforward solution to reviving our financial stability and reducing the federal debt: the federal government must significantly cut spending.

In order to follow through with our Pledge to America, we need additional cuts; the $100 billion deficit reduction measure my colleagues and I are offering in Congress is one such measure. This cut will be the greatest single cut to discretionary spending in America’s history, rolling back government spending to pre-stimulus levels.  This is a bold legislative effort to address the runaway spending and restore fiscal stability to the United States, helping to better balance the budget and reduce deficit spending.

It is unfortunate that while this Administration continues to put America further and further into debt, families are struggling to make ends meet.  Americans are watching their own incomes drop at the same time the federal government’s budget increases at an astronomical pace.  We should expect our government to live within its means, the same way American families are forced to every day.