Patrick McHenryChairman

Washington, March 25, 2015 -

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) released the following statement after the House passed the Fiscal Year 2016 budget resolution (H. Con. Res. 27):

“Budgets are about priorities, and the House Republican budget resolution passed today by the House of Representatives advances several important priorities. To give hardworking, middle income families the opportunity to achieve economic success, our budget calls for comprehensive, pro-growth tax reform that lowers tax rates on American families and businesses, and broadens the tax base by getting rid of loopholes and special interest provisions. To keep our promise to current and future seniors, we save, strengthen, and secure Medicare and Social Security by getting these important programs off the path to certain bankruptcy. To get our nation’s fiscal house in order and off the path to national bankruptcy, our budget stops spending money we don’t have, will balance in less than 10 years, and will allow us to begin paying down our nation’s debt. To empower patients and doctors to make their own health care decisions, our budget fully repeals Obamacare. To stop future bailouts enshrined into law by the Dodd-Frank Act, our budget ends Washington’s regime for officially designating certain financial firms as ‘too big to fail’ and envisions the eventual elimination of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-controlled mortgage giants that received the largest taxpayer-funded bailout in history. Our budget also brings needed accountability to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to make sure it doesn’t engage in wasteful spending but instead uses its resources to actually help protect American consumers.

“At a time when the threats to our national security are on the rise, this budget ensures that our nation’s military has the resources needed to defend our nation and allow our men and women in uniform to carry out the mission we’ve tasked them with. In a perfect world, it would have been my preference to provide increased spending for our nation’s defense without using the ‘off-budget’ Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) account. But this would have opened the door for the President to enter this process seeking dramatic increases for his priorities, ultimately threatening to undo the spending caps established by the Budget Control Act.

“When you compare this budget with the President’s budget, his hurts the economic and job opportunities of current and future generations of Americans by continuing to spend money we don’t have. By completely blowing up the bipartisan spending caps that Republicans and Democrats agreed to just over three years ago in the Budget Control Act, increasing taxes on hard working Americans, and failing to reform Social Security and Medicare – all the president has really done is step on the accelerator, hurdling us that much faster towards financial oblivion and leaving American families with a downsized American Dream.

“Simply put, President Obama’s budget prioritizes big government and even bigger taxes. The House Republican Budget prioritizes economic growth and opportunity for all Americans and gives them the opportunity to pursue their version of the American dream.”