Pelosi: 'President Obama's Budget Directly Tackles Our Nation's Most Pressing Challenges'

WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement on President Obama's budget request for fiscal year 2011, which was released today:

"President Obama's budget directly tackles our nation's most pressing challenges — reflecting our dedication to fiscal discipline and our commitment to keep jobs, growth, and opportunity at the top of our agenda.

"This budget builds on the success of the steps taken in the Recovery Act to create good-paying jobs, spur investment in small business, and get our country on the path to economic growth.  Enshrined in this year's budget is a renewed focus on the areas set to drive our economic recovery and form the foundation for long-term prosperity: affordable health care, clean energy, education, infrastructure, and innovation.  By extending tax credits for small business owners, entrepreneurs, and middle-class families, we can create jobs and strengthen the key pillars key to our nation's economic success.

"This week, the 'pay-as-you-go' budget principles that created surpluses in the 1990s — and have been rules of the House since the start of the New Direction Congress in 2007 — will be sent to the President to become the law of the land.  I support the President's call for a bipartisan fiscal commission that will put forth our best ideas for how to rein in our deficits and avoid saddling our children and grandchildren with an unsustainable national debt.

"President Obama has approached this budget with equal commitment to economic growth and fiscal responsibility.  I look forward to examining the President's proposal to freeze spending and believe waste can be found in all departments and agencies — including the Defense Department — so it too must come under scrutiny.  We will continue to fully support our veterans and our men and women in uniform and their families, but curbing military contractors' wasteful practices must be part of our efforts to restore accountability, transparency, and fiscal discipline to the federal budget.

"The President's budget embodies our shared vision of progress and prosperity for every American.  It represents our singular focus on ensuring that no worker gets left behind on the road to recovery and that the doors of opportunity are open for anyone willing to put in a full day's work.  Moving forward, Members of Congress will work closely with the White House to ensure that our budget lays the foundation for growth for all families."

SOURCE Office of the Speaker of the House