First Posted: 2/7/2015
CINCINNATI (AP) — Ohio’s Republican senator Saturday blasted President Barack Obama’s budget for not confronting the U.S. debt.
Rob Portman of the Cincinnati area gave the GOP’s national weekly address, focusing on the $4 trillion budget Obama just sent to Congress.
Portman said the president hasn’t moved to curb overspending that keeps adding to debt.
“As any family who’s ever sat down around the kitchen table to figure out how a budget works knows, it’s about making tough choices and setting priorities for the future. Unfortunately, President Obama doesn’t make those tough choices in this budget,” Portman said.
He said that “simply staggering” debt is hanging over the economy “kind of like a wet blanket, smothering opportunity, making it harder to create an environment where good-paying jobs can thrive.”
Obama said Saturday his budget is about “middle-class economics,” aimed at helping people who are working hard get ahead and making sure that economic recovery helps more than just the people at the top.
But Portman said Obama’s policies are to blame for the “middle-class squeeze” and called the latest presidential budget “more of the same.”
Republicans will respond with “a very different budget” proposal that will cut waste, “spend smarter,” and foster job growth, said Portman, who’s on the Senate Finance Committee and is a former White House budget chief.
