McCaskill Disappointed with Budget Proposals from Both Parties

Today, U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill cast her votes against both the Republican and Democratic budget proposals, saying earlier on the Senate floor that neither proposal was in line with Missourians’ priorities. “The House's resolution frankly was not smart in the way they did the cuts. No one in any business would take all of the cuts out of one small sliver of their business…All the pain was in one place. And they are killing off the very part of our budget that has the best chance of increasing economic activity in this country: the building of roads and bridges, the educating of our kids, the research and the science and the development,” McCaskill said. She continued: “On the other hand, the Senate has not gone far enough. It is frankly disappointing to me. I still think that there are way too many people in denial around here about the nature of the problem and how serious it is. And I don't think we're demonstrating to the American people that we understand the nature of the problem when we present an alternative proposal with such a small number of cuts.” The proposal supported by Republicans in the House of Representatives cuts approximately $61 billion in taxpayer dollars but focuses solely on domestic discretionary spending, only 17 percent of the budget. The Senate proposal cuts only $6.2 billion. Along with her colleagues Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and Bob Corker (R-TN), respectively, she has introduced legislation to rein in spending both in the short<http://mccaskill.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=785> and long-term<http://mccaskill.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=1183>. She also introduce Pay-As-You-Go legislation to require Congress to pay for money it allocates and legislation to create a fiscal ‘task force’ to make recommendations on how Congress should approach the deficit and debt in the long term, similar to the fiscal commission created by President Obama in early 2010.

Watch McCaskill speaking on the floor today<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYtqcq17p1A>