[House Document 111-46]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]



111th Congress, 1st Session - - - - - - - - - - - - - House Document 111-46

 
    THE ``STATUTORY PAY-AS-YOU-GO ACT OF 2009'' LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL

                               __________

                             COMMUNICATION

                                  from

                   THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

                              transmitting

  THE LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL ENTITLED, ``STATUTORY PAY-AS-YOU-GO ACT OF 
        2009,'' OR ``PAYGO,'' TOGETHER WITH A SECTIONAL ANALYSIS




June 10, 2009.--Referred to the Committee on the Budget and ordered to 
                               be printed
To the Congress of the United States:
    Today I am pleased to submit to the Congress the enclosed 
legislative proposal, the ``Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 
2009,'' or ``PAYGO,'' together with a sectional analysis.
    The deficits that my Administration inherited reflect not 
only a severe economic downturn but also years of failing to 
pay for new policies--including large tax cuts that 
disproportionately benefited the affluent. This failure of 
fiscal discipline contributed to transforming surpluses 
projected at the beginning of this decade into trillions of 
dollars in deficits. I am committed to returning our Government 
to a path of fiscal discipline, and PAYGO represents a key step 
back to the path of shared responsibility.
    PAYGO would hold us to a simple but important principle: we 
should pay for new tax or entitlement legislation. Creating a 
new non-emergency tax cut or entitlement expansion would 
require offsetting revenue increases or spending reductions.
    In the 1990s, statutory PAYGO encouraged the tough choices 
that helped to move the Government from large deficits to 
surpluses, and I believe it can do the same today. 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.
    Both the Budget I have proposed and the Budget Resolution 
approved by the Congress would cut the deficit in half by the 
end of my first term, while laying a new foundation for 
sustained and widely shared economic growth through key 
investments in health, education, and clean energy. Enacting 
statutory PAYGO would complement these efforts and represent an 
important step toward strengthening our budget process, cutting 
deficits, and reducing national debt. Ultimately, however, we 
will have to do even more to restore fiscal sustainability.
    I urge the prompt and favorable consideration of this 
proposal.

                                                      Barack Obama.
    The White House, June 9, 2009. 
    
    
