Budget
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The national economy is bleak. Four years after a deep recession, unemployment remains stubbornly high at 7.8 percent, and economic growth has slowed to 1.3 percent. Families and small businesses are struggling to make ends meet. As wages and benefits have been cut, prices of electricity, gas, food, and health care continue to rise. Clearly, we are not headed in the right direction.
The House of Representatives returns from the August District Work Period this week with several items left to accomplish during the short amount of time before the November elections.
The looming expiration of critical tax provisions on January 1, 2013 is part of what many analysts are calling the “fiscal cliff.” Others have dubbed this economic doomsday scenario “Taxmageddon.” Recently, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found failing to prevent scheduled tax increases at the end of the year likely would contribute to a recession in early 2013.
Washington, DC – Congressman Adrian Smith (R-NE) released the following statement after the 2012 Social Security and Medicare Trustees Reports showed both programs will be insolvent within the next 20 years:
Washington, DC – Today Congressman Adrian Smith (R-NE) released the following statement after he and sixteen Members of Congress sent a letter to Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi regarding the Postal Service targeting rural postal facilities as a means of addressing its massive budget shortfall:
America’s looming debt crisis is the most predictable – and avoidable – economic calamity in our nation’s history. Make no mistake: empty promises from both political parties have gotten us where we are today. This explosion of debt is threatening to cripple our nation and rob our children and grandchildren of their future.
Washington, DC – Congressman Adrian Smith (R-NE) today issued the following statement after voting for passage of H.Con.Res. 112, the Budget Resolution introduced by Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI):
This past Friday marked the two-year anniversary of the enactment of President Obama’s health care law, formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Nebraskans often remind me of their displeasure of the process used by Congress to pass the bill.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known as the “stimulus,” turned three years old on Friday. When properly accounted, the price tag for this historic spending law is more than $1.1 trillion. To put this figure in perspective, the stimulus is more than twice the size of the New Deal and more than the entire value of Australia’s economy.