Statement by Ron Paul on Latest Obama Budget

LAKE JACKSON, Texas — 2012 Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul released the following statement regarding President Barack Obama's newly released budget for fiscal year 2013.

"For the fourth year in a row our federal budget deficit will exceed $1 trillion, and President Obama is offering us a budget plan that will continue digging us deeper into this debt hole. This budget contains a massive tax increase, and President Obama's policies of more debt and taxes will make the jobs crisis facing the nation much worse than the employment crisis we are facing.

"This latest $1 trillion deficit plan is a far cry from the promises President Obama made upon taking office, when he promised he would 'cut the federal deficit in half' by the end of his first term. In reality, the President has only increased the deficit he inherited by billions every year he's been in office.

"Another promise to add to the long list of those not kept.

"I have been fighting the fight against high taxes, bloated budgets, unsustainable deficits, and ever-growing federal government my entire career. And now it seems more people are listening, but the elites in Washington like those in the Obama administration are, if anything, only paying lip-service to the idea of getting this very real crisis under control.

"The debt should be priority number one, for everybody. It is for me. But it doesn't seem to be for the people in charge.

"Americans should be outraged that I am the only presidential candidate who is taking the debt seriously and offering real solutions to our fiscal mess. My 'Plan to Restore America' cuts $1 trillion in spending immediately and gets our economy on the way to much needed reform. But my proposal is rarely reported on by the elite media, and rarely even mentioned by my opponents or those who claim to be concerned about the financial health of our nation.

"In 2010, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen said that our debt is the greatest threat to our national security. And since he's said that, things have not improved one bit. I firmly believe in a strong national defense, and I realize that if we do not take decisive action to deal with this debt crisis, we will not have much of a nation left to defend. That is why I offered my plan as a starting point to move toward solving this issue.

"There are some like the President who believe we can simply tax ourselves out of this predicament, I totally disagree. Washington does not have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem. So, it doesn't matter how much we raise taxes, if we do not cure our disease of overspending we will not end the vicious cycle of borrowing and printing well beyond our means.

"America is the greatest nation on earth, we have had the largest middle class, the greatest wealth, and greatest number of success stories the world has ever seen. But now we see our middle class shrinking, our wealth diminished, kids are graduating from college with no real job prospects, and we have become the world's biggest debtor nation.

"So what I propose under a Paul presidency, is a path back to prosperity, back to a vibrant middle class, more success stories, greater wealth and opportunity for every American willing to do the work it takes to achieve. I plan to restore America to what it once was, and what it can still be."