Artuji

President Barack Obama, during his address this morning, says that he is backing the PAYGO law or the Pay As You Go Law.

This law compels new spending or tax changes to not add to the federal deficit. New proposals must either be “budget neutral” or offset with savings derived from existing funds. The goal of this is to require those in control of the budget to engage in the diligence of prioritizing expenses and exercising fiscal restraint.

President Obama also plans to create a bipartisan debt-reduction commission and proposes a three-year freeze on a one-eighth slice of the budget for domestic spending.

The Pay As You Go legislation he’s endorsing is a compromise reached among Congressional Democratic leaders; it exempts future extensions of some existing tax cuts for the middle class.

Some excerpts on Obama’s address this morning in Washington:
“In the 1990s, statutory paygo encouraged the tough choices that helped to move the government from large deficits to surpluses, and the President believes it can do the same today. Statutory paygo would hold the government to a simple but bedrock principle: Congress can only spend a dollar if it saves a dollar elsewhere”

“Both houses of Congress have already taken an important step toward righting our fiscal course by adopting congressional rules incorporating the paygo principle, but we can strengthen enforcement and redouble our commitment by enacting paygo into law”