Polis Praises President Obama's FY 2016 Budget

Statement

Representative Jared Polis (CO-02) today made the following statement in response to the release of President Obama's FY2016 budget:

"Over the past several weeks, the President has traveled the country laying out concrete steps to strengthen the middle class, improve our education system, and invest in our economy. The budget that President Obama released today brings together these plans and recognizes that when we make smart investments in our infrastructure, our communities, and our citizens, our nation is stronger.

"This is in stark contrast to the Republican House leadership who seem to be stuck in a "Groundhog Day' scenario, bringing the same partisan pandering bills to the floor, over and over again. They show no signs of breaking this pattern, with yet another attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act coming to the floor this week.

"The President's budget makes a historic commitment to education, and recognizes that pre-k programs and community college should not be luxury items, reserved for the wealthy. This focus on expanding the quality, access to, and affordability of our education system is not just important for our students, but ensures that we have workers ready to succeed in a 21st century economy. This is critically important to Colorado, where our thriving tech and innovation economy needs more and more highly skilled workers every day.

"I was also thrilled to see many of the programs I have championed included in the budget. These include increased funding for English language learners, additional resources to support educators throughout their careers, and more than $3 billion for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education.

"The President makes clear that in order for the United States to continue to lead in the 21st century economy, we need not only a 21st century infrastructure, but a 21st century workforce. The budget makes critical investments in worker training programs and lays out a plan to modernize our roads, ports, railroads, and broadband system so that all those newly trained workers can get to work, and commerce can continue without concern of crumbling roads or slow internet speeds.

"Despite reducing the deficit by nearly $2 trillion, this is not even close to a balanced budget. Over the past several budget cycles it has become clear to me that we need to pass a balanced budget amendment in order to force Congress to be responsible stewards of American's tax dollars.

"While protecting our homeland remains paramount, the budget includes bloated weapon systems projects and inflates military spending at a time when we are winding down two wars. We need to be streamlining our defenses, and restructuring our forces for the 21st century, not for the Cold War.

"It's time to stop playing political games in Congress, and pass a budget that moves the middle class forward and creates opportunities for all Coloradans and all Americans to get ahead."

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