[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 47 (Wednesday, April 10, 2013)]
[House]
[Pages H1890-H1892]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 BUDGET OF THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2014--MESSAGE 
      FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (H. DOC. NO. 113-3)

  The SPEAKER pro tempore laid before the House the following message 
from the President of the United States; which was read and, together 
with the accompanying papers, referred to the Committee on 
Appropriations and ordered to be printed:

To the Congress of the United States:
  Thanks to the hard work and determination of the American people, we 
have made significant progress over the last 4 years. After a decade of 
war, our brave men and women in uniform are coming home. After years of 
recession, our businesses have created over six million new jobs. We 
buy more American cars than we have in 5 years, and less foreign oil 
than we have in 20 years. Our housing market is healing, our stock 
market is rebounding, and consumers, patients, and homeowners enjoy 
stronger protections than ever before.
  But we know that there are millions of Americans whose hard work and 
dedication have not yet been rewarded. Our economy is adding jobs--but 
too many people still cannot find full-time employment. Corporate 
profits have skyrocketed to all-time highs--but for more than a decade, 
wages and incomes have barely budged.
  It is our generation's task to reignite the true engine of America's 
economic growth--a rising, thriving middle class. It is our unfinished 
task to restore the basic bargain that built this country--the idea 
that if you work hard and meet your responsibilities, you can get 
ahead, no matter where you come from, no matter what you look like, or 
whom you love.
  It is our unfinished task to make sure that this Government works on 
behalf of the many, and not just the few; that it encourages free 
enterprise, rewards individual initiative, and opens the doors of 
opportunity to every child across this great Nation.
  A growing economy that creates good, middle class jobs--this must be 
the North Star that guides our efforts. Every day, we should ask 
ourselves three questions as a Nation: How do we attract more jobs to 
our shores? How do we equip our people with the skills they need to get 
those jobs? And how do we make sure that hard work leads to a decent 
living?
  This Budget seeks to answer each of these questions.
  Our first priority is making America a magnet for new jobs and 
manufacturing. After shedding jobs for more than 10 years, our 
manufacturers have added more than 500,000 jobs over the past 3 years. 
Companies large and small are increasingly deciding to bring jobs back 
to America.
  To accelerate this trend, the Budget builds on the success of the 
manufacturing innovation institute we created in Youngstown, Ohio last 
year, and calls for the creation of a network of 15 of these hubs 
across the Nation. In these innovation hubs, businesses will partner 
with universities and Federal agencies to turn regions around our 
country into global centers of high-tech jobs.
  The Budget also includes new initiatives to support manufacturing 
communities, including a new tax credit to strengthen their ability to 
attract investments and jobs. And it expands my Administration's 
SelectUSA initiative to help draw businesses and investment from around 
the world to our shores.
  If we want to make the best products, we also have to invest in the 
best ideas. That is why the Budget maintains a world-class commitment 
to science and research, targeting resources to those areas most likely 
to contribute directly to the creation of transformational technologies 
that can create the businesses and jobs of the future.
  No area holds more promise than our investments in American energy. 
The Budget continues to advance my ``all-of-the-above'' strategy on 
energy, investing in clean energy research and development; promoting 
energy efficiency in our cars, homes, and businesses; encouraging 
responsible domestic energy production; and launching new efforts to 
combat the threat of climate change.
  Modeled after my successful Race to the Top education reform effort, 
the Budget includes a new Race to the Top energy efficiency challenge 
for States, rewarding those that implement the most effective policies 
to cut energy waste. And it establishes a new Energy Security Trust 
funded by royalty revenue from oil and gas leases to support 
initiatives to shift our cars and trucks off oil, cutting our Nation's 
reliance on foreign oil.
  Over the last 4 years, we have begun the hard work of rebuilding our 
Nation's infrastructure. We have built or improved over 350,000 miles 
of road and more than 6,000 miles of rail. And we have repaired or 
replaced over 20,000 bridges. But to compete in the 21st Century 
economy and become a magnet for jobs, we must do more. We need to 
repair our existing infrastructure, and invest in the infrastructure of 
tomorrow, including high-speed rail, high-tech schools, and self-
healing power grids. These investments will both lay the foundation for 
long-term economic growth and put workers back on the job now.

[[Page H1891]]

  My Budget includes $50 billion for up-front infrastructure 
investments, including a ``Fix-it-First'' program that makes an 
immediate investment to put people to work as soon as possible on our 
most urgent repairs, like the nearly 70,000 structurally-deficient 
bridges across the country. And to make sure taxpayers do not shoulder 
the whole burden, the Budget creates a Rebuild America Partnership to 
attract private capital to upgrade what our businesses need most: 
modern ports to move our goods; modern pipelines to withstand a storm; 
and modern schools worthy of our children.
  The Budget also supports efforts I announced earlier this year to 
modernize and improve the efficiency of the Federal permitting process, 
cutting through the red tape that has been holding back even some of 
the most carefully planned infrastructure projects. These efforts will 
help us to achieve the new goal I set to cut timelines in half for 
infrastructure projects, while creating new incentives for better 
outcomes for communities and the environment.
  All of these initiatives in manufacturing, energy, and infrastructure 
will help entrepreneurs and small business owners expand and create new 
jobs. But none of it will matter unless we also equip our citizens with 
the skills and training to fill those jobs.
  And that has to start at the earliest possible age. But today, fewer 
than 3 in 10 4-year-olds are enrolled in a high-quality preschool 
program, and the high cost of private preschool puts too much of a 
financial burden on middle class families.
  The Budget therefore includes a proposal that ensures 4-year-olds 
across the country have access to high-quality preschool education 
through a landmark new initiative in partnership with the States. And 
it increases the availability of early learning for our youngest 
children to help their growth and development during the formative 
early years of life.
  Providing a year of free, public preschool education for 4-year-old 
children is an important investment in our future. It will give all our 
kids the best start in life, helping them perform better in elementary 
school and ultimately helping them, and the country, be better prepared 
for the demands of the global economy. Not only that, it could save 
hard-working families thousands of dollars each year in child care 
costs. This is an investment we need to make, and it is fully paid for 
in this Budget by imposing a new tax on every pack of cigarettes sold.
  The Budget also builds on the historic reforms made during my first 
term to improve our elementary and secondary school system by rewarding 
excellence and promoting innovation. To help ensure that our high 
schools are putting our kids on a path to college and a good job, the 
Budget includes a new competitive fund that will help redesign 
America's high schools to prepare students with the real world skills 
they need to find a job right away or go to college. The fund rewards 
schools that develop new partnerships with colleges and employers, and 
create classes focusing on science, technology, engineering and 
mathematics (STEM)--the skills today's employers seek to fill the jobs 
available right now and in the future.
  Even with better high schools, most young people will still need some 
higher education. Through tax credits, grants, and better loans, we 
have made college more affordable for millions of students and families 
over the last 4 years. But skyrocketing costs are still pricing too 
many young people out of a higher education, or saddling them with 
unsustainable debt. And taxpayers cannot continue to subsidize higher 
and higher costs for higher education.
  To encourage colleges to do their part to keep costs down, the Budget 
includes reforms that will ensure affordability and value are 
considered in determining which colleges receive certain types of 
Federal aid. My Administration has also released a new ``College 
Scorecard'' that parents and students can use to compare schools.
  To further ensure our educational system is preparing students for 
careers in the 21st Century economy, the Budget includes additional 
measures to promote STEM education, such as launching a new STEM Master 
Teacher Corps, to leverage the expertise of some of America's best and 
brightest teachers in science and mathematics, and to elevate the 
teaching of these subjects nationwide. It also includes a 
reorganization and consolidation of STEM education programs to improve 
the effectiveness of Federal investments in this area.
  The Budget takes other critical steps to grow our economy, create 
jobs, and strengthen the middle class. It implements the Affordable 
Care Act, giving every American access to the high-quality, affordable 
health care coverage they deserve, and reducing the deficit by more 
than $1 trillion over the next two decades. It implements Wall Street 
reform, ending too-big-to-fail and protecting consumers against the 
abuses and reckless behavior that contributed to the financial collapse 
in 2008. And it includes measures to strengthen our housing market and 
ensure that every responsible homeowner has the opportunity to 
refinance at today's rates, saving $3,000 a year on average.
  Our economy is stronger when we harness the talents and ingenuity of 
striving, hopeful immigrants. That is why I have proposed a plan to fix 
our broken immigration system that secures our borders, cracks down on 
employers who hire undocumented workers, attracts highly-skilled 
entrepreneurs and engineers to help create jobs and drive economic 
growth, and establishes a responsible pathway to earned citizenship--a 
path that includes passing a background check, paying taxes and a 
meaningful penalty, learning English, and going to the back of the line 
behind the folks trying to come here legally. The Budget makes 
investments that will make our immigration system more efficient and 
fair and lay a foundation for this permanent, common-sense reform.

  The Budget also builds on the progress made over the last 4 years to 
expand opportunity for every American and every community willing to do 
the work to lift themselves up. It creates new ladders opportunity to 
ensure that hard work leads to a decent living. It rewards hard work by 
increasing the minimum wage to $9 an hour so an honest day's work pays 
more. It partners with communities by identifying Promise Zones to help 
rebuild from the recession. It creates pathways to jobs for the long-
term unemployed and youth who have been hardest hit by the downturn. 
And it strengthens families by removing financial deterrents to 
marriage and supporting the role of fathers.
  We also know that economic growth can only be achieved and sustained 
if America is safe and secure, both at home and abroad. At home, the 
Budget supports my initiative to help protect our kids, reduce gun 
violence, and expand access to mental health services. We can protect 
our Second Amendment rights while coming together around reforms like 
eliminating background check loopholes to make it harder for criminals 
to get their hands on a gun--common-sense reforms that will help 
protect our kids from the scourge of gun violence that has plagued too 
many communities across the country.
  To confront threats outside our borders, the Budget ensures our 
military remains the finest and best-equipped military force the world 
has ever known, even as we wind down more than a decade of war.
  Already, we have brought home more than 30,000 of our brave 
servicemembers from Afghanistan. Our remaining forces are moving into a 
support role, with Afghan security forces taking the lead. And over the 
next year, another 34,000 American troops will come home. This drawdown 
will continue and, by the end of next year, our war in Afghanistan will 
be over. Beyond 2014, the Budget supports our continued commitment to a 
unified and sovereign Afghanistan.
  To maintain our national security, the Budget supports our ongoing 
fight against terrorists, like al Qaeda. The organization that attacked 
us on 9/11 is a shadow of its former self. But different al Qaeda 
affiliates and extremist groups have emerged--from the Arabian 
Peninsula to Africa. We will confront these emerging security 
challenges through the full range of U.S. capabilities and tools, 
including diplomatic, security, intelligence, and economic development.

[[Page H1892]]

  The Budget also provides the resources we need to act on our 
commitment to and interests in global development, by promoting food 
security that reduces dependence and increases prosperity; by investing 
in the increasingly successful drive toward an AIDS-free generation; 
and by maintaining our leadership as a global provider of humanitarian 
assistance that saves lives and reflects American values.
  We must also confront new dangers, like cyber attacks, that threaten 
our Nation's infrastructure, businesses, and people. The Budget 
supports the expansion of Government-wide efforts to counter the full 
scope of cyber threats, and strengthens our ability to collaborate with 
State and local governments, our partners overseas, and the private 
sector to improve our overall cybersecurity.
  The Budget also focuses resources on the Asia-Pacific region, 
reasserting American leadership and promoting security, stability, 
democracy, and economic growth.
  Importantly, the Budget upholds our solemn obligation to take care of 
our servicemembers and veterans, and to protect our diplomats and 
civilians in the field. It keeps faith with our veterans, investing in 
world-class care, including mental health care for our wounded 
warriors, supporting our military families, and giving our veterans the 
benefits, education, and job opportunities that they have earned.
  The Budget does all of these things as part of a comprehensive plan 
that reduces the deficit. All of these initiatives and ideas are fully 
paid for, to ensure they do not increase the deficit by a single dime.
  By making investments in our people that we pay for responsibly, we 
will strengthen the middle class, make America a magnet for jobs and 
innovation, and grow our economy, which will in turn help us to reduce 
deficits. But economic growth alone will not solve our Nation's long-
term fiscal challenges.
  As we continue to grow our economy, we must take further action to 
cut our deficits. We do not have to choose between these two important 
priorities--we have to do both.
  Over the last 4 years, both parties have worked together to reduce 
the deficit in a balanced way by more than $2.5 trillion. That is more 
than halfway toward the goal of $4 trillion in deficit reduction that 
economists say we need to stabilize our finances. As we wind down two 
wars, we have protected our military families and veterans while 
cutting defense spending on outdated military weapons systems. Domestic 
discretionary spending is approaching its lowest levels as a share of 
the economy since President Eisenhower was in office; and we have moved 
aggressively to cut waste, fraud, and abuse. And together, we have 
begun to ask the wealthy to do their fair share while keeping income 
taxes low for middle class families. Overall, we have cut the deficit 
in a balanced way that protects the investments in education, 
manufacturing, clean energy, and small businesses we need to grow the 
economy and strengthen the middle class. There is more work to do, and 
this Budget is designed to finish the job.
  But we should not do it by making harsh and arbitrary cuts that 
jeopardize our military readiness, devastate priorities like education 
and energy, and cost jobs. That is not how to grow the economy. We 
should not ask middle class senior citizens and working families to pay 
down the rest of our deficit while the wealthiest are asked for nothing 
more. That does not grow our middle class.
  The American people understand that we cannot just cut our way to 
prosperity. That is why I have repeatedly called for a balanced 
approach to deficit reduction. And that is why I have offered proposals 
on multiple occasions that cut wasteful spending, strengthen 
entitlements, and eliminate special tax breaks and loopholes so the 
wealthiest pay their fair share.
  In my negotiations with House Speaker Boehner in December over the 
so-called ``fiscal cliff,'' I again offered a compromise proposal that 
was balanced and comprehensive, and would achieve our $4 trillion 
deficit reduction goal. That proposal is still on the table. I am 
including it in this Budget to demonstrate my commitment to making the 
kind of tough and balanced choices that are needed to put our Nation's 
finances in order.
  To be clear, the package I am offering includes some difficult cuts 
that I do not particularly like. But these measures will only become 
law if congressional Republicans agree to meet me in the middle by 
eliminating special tax breaks and loopholes so millionaires and 
billionaires do their fair share to cut the deficit. I will not agree 
to any deal that seeks to cut the deficit on the backs of middle class 
Families. I am willing to make tough choices that may not be popular 
within my own party, because there can be no sacred cows for either 
party. And I look forward to working with any member of Congress who 
takes a similar, balanced approach. This plan is built on the kind of 
common ground that Democrats and Republicans should be able to reach.
  In total, the Budget will cut the deficit by another $1.8 trillion 
over the next 10 years, bringing the deficit below 2 percent of GDP by 
2023 and putting our debt on a declining path. This is not an end in 
and of itself--the best way to grow the economy and cut the deficit is 
by creating good middle class jobs. But this plan to reduce the deficit 
in a balanced way is a critical step toward ensuring that we have a 
solid foundation on which to build a strong economy and a thriving 
middle class for years to come.
  Finally, this Budget continues my commitment to reforming and 
streamlining our Government for the 21st Century. It builds on my 
Campaign to Cut Waste by further targeting and eliminating wasteful 
spending wherever we find it. It reorganizes and consolidates agencies 
and programs to make them leaner and more efficient. It increases the 
use of evidence and evaluation to ensure we are making smart 
investments with our scarce taxpayer dollars. And it harnesses new 
technologies to allow us to do more with less.
  No single Budget can solve every challenge and every problem facing 
the country. But this Budget shows how we can live within our means 
while growing our economy, strengthening the middle class, and securing 
our Nation's future. It is not a Democratic plan or a Republican plan. 
It is an American plan. And it is a plan that I hope can serve as an 
outline for us to write the next great chapter of the American story . 
. . together.
                                                        Barack Obama.  
The White House, April 10, 2013.

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