White House Press Secretary Jay Carney lauded the Senate for passing a budget early Saturday, its first in four years, which he said “will create jobs and cut the deficit in a balanced way.” He also criticized the House for passing a budget that eliminates the deficit over the next ten years entirely through cuts, saying that “We will continue to insist that any solution has balance.”
The full statement below:
Today, the Senate passed a budget plan that will create jobs and cut the deficit in a balanced way. Like the President’s plan, the Senate budget cuts wasteful spending, makes tough choices to strengthen entitlements, and eliminates special tax breaks and loopholes for the wealthiest Americans to reduce the deficit.
The President and Democrats in Congress are willing to make difficult choices so we can cut the deficit while laying the foundation for long term middle class job growth. And it is encouraging that both the Senate and House have made progress by passing budgets through regular order. We will continue to insist that any solution has balance. The House Republican budget refuses to ask for a single dime of deficit reduction from closing tax loopholes for the wealthy and the well-connected but instead makes deep cuts to education and manufacturing while asking seniors and the middle class to pay more. That’s not an approach we support and it’s not an approach the majority of the American people support.
Now it is time for our leaders to come together to find common ground. The President has put a plan on the table that reflects compromise, and he will continue to work with both sides to see if there is an opportunity to reach a solution to our budget challenges. We hope we will find this compromise because that is what the American people expect and what they deserve.
