Tea Party Express Demands President Obama Honor His Promise to Cut the Deficit in Half

Sacramento, CA – Tea Party Express, the nation’s largest Tea Party political action committee, is calling the pending sequestration an opportunity for the President to finally make good on his promise to cut the deficit in half.

Tea Party Express Chief Strategist Sal Russo said, “Four years ago, President Obama promised the American people that he would ‘cut the deficit we inherited in half.’ Unfortunately, since that pledge was made, the President has overseen the four largest budget deficits in American history. Although the President’s arbitrary sequester cuts are anything but ideal, he has failed to rein in federal spending, and these sequester cuts are our only responsible option.

“According to the Congressional Budget Office, federal spending is expected to explode from $3.6 trillion this year to over $6 trillion in 10 years. Sequestration cuts merely 2.4% of that increase in spending. There are no actual cuts in federal spending. Slowing the rate of growth of government is hardly drastic, and it doesn’t even come close to resolving our long-term fiscal crisis caused by over-spending, over-taxing and over-regulating.

“If conservatives had control of the federal government, we would implement reducing the rate of spending more responsibly and much differently. Since Democrats control the White House and the Senate, it is the President’s job to identify a responsible way to put America on a path towards a balanced budget. His incessant demagoguery not only stifles debate, but also hides the dire financial state of our nation from the American people.

“Instead of the sequestration’s arbitrary cuts in the rate of spending increases, the President should propose real spending reform and entitlement reform. He could also accept one of the plans that have already passed the House since his own budgets have failed to gain a single vote. With the President unwilling to propose real spending and entitlement reform, sequestration is the only responsible option we have,” Russo concluded.

ICYMI: President Obama’s Speech on February 23rd, 2009:

“Today I am pledging to cut the deficit we inherited in half by the end of my first term in office. Now, this will not be easy. It will require us to make difficult decisions and face challenges we’ve long neglected. But I refuse to leave our children with a debt that they cannot repay, and that means taking responsibility right now, in this administration, for getting our spending under control.”