Washington, December 12, 2013 -

U.S. Rep. Tom Graves (R-GA-14) issued the following statement after voting for the bipartisan budget deal that provides greater deficit reduction over the next 10 years:

“This deal isn’t great and it isn’t terrible. The bottom line is that it reduces the deficit by $23 billion over the next decade without raising taxes—that’s a better deal for taxpayers than current law.

“It’s a positive step when both parties agree to make government smaller and more efficient through entitlement reforms and cuts to wasteful spending. The alternative is to put current law on autopilot, where a lot of savings would come from cutting defense jobs instead of cutting waste, fraud, and corporate welfare. In other words, without this deal, tax dollars would continue going to criminals and dead people while Georgia defense workers get furloughed or laid off. It makes a lot more sense to cut the fraud and keep the jobs.

“While it’s true that the overall deal makes a tiny dent in the government’s fiscal problems, it opens the door for better policy moving forward and, in the near term, keeps all the pressure on President Obama and the Democrats to answer for the Obamacare disaster.”

More information about the deficit reduction deal:

• The bill reduces the deficit by $23 billion.

• Across the board cuts that would impact defense jobs are replaced with cuts to waste, fraud, abuse and corporate welfare.

• The overall discretionary spending level is lower compared to the budgets passed by House Republicans in 2011 and 2012.

• Extends the mandatory spending sequester by two years, which provides $28 billion in spending cuts and locks in deficit reduction negotiating leverage through Fiscal Year 2023.

• Protects taxpayers from bailing out corporate pension benefits by requiring private companies to cover a greater cost of guaranteeing their pensions, saving taxpayers $7.9 billion.

• Requires federal employees to contribute more to their pensions, bringing their contributions closer to the public sector norm and saving taxpayers $6 billion.

• Repeals corporate welfare policies, such as a taxpayer-funded research program for energy companies, saving a combined $790 million.

• Ends outrageous tax dollar abuses, like sending unemployment checks to criminals and government checks to dead people.

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