Washington, D.C. –U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz, Vice Chair of the House Budget Committee, issued the following statement today after President Obama delivered his Fiscal Year 2011 budget report to Congress.

“Last year President Obama and Democrats in Congress took immediate action to stabilize our economy and make important investments for our future prosperity. We provided relief to millions of American families and businesses struggling from the economic recession. We passed 25 different tax cuts including the broadest middle class tax cut in history, which helped 110 million families. We made critical investments in transportation infrastructure and local governments to help create jobs and spur economic growth. As a result, two million Americans are working right now who would otherwise be unemployed.”

“One year later, our economy has stabilized and in the last quarter of 2009 the economy grew by 5.7 percent, the largest growth in six years.”

“However, many Americans are still out of work and facing difficult economic times. It is important that we continue to focus our efforts on creating jobs in the private sector and rebuilding the economy for the long-term. At the same time, we must also address our nation’s budgetary challenges and begin to work to reduce the federal deficit.”

“The President’s budget puts a renewed focus on job creation in the private sector by providing tax credits for small businesses that hire new workers. It boosts America’s middle class by extending middle class tax cuts, expanding financial aid for students, and improving retirement security. By directly investing in education, infrastructure, science, technology and research, we will spur job growth and build the industries of the future, enabling us to compete in a global economy.”

“I am particularly pleased with the president’s decision to include a Healthy Fresh Food Financing Initiative (HFFI), a measure I have worked hard to create. In December 2009, I introduced a resolution in Congress to create an HFFI to increase access to healthy food for urban and rural Americans. In Pennsylvania, a similar initiative established more than 70 grocery stores and created nearly 5,000 jobs. The president has included more than $400 million in funding for this important initiative.

“The President’s budget takes substantial measures to reduce the deficit. It cuts the deficit in half from $1.5 trillion in 2010 (10.6 percent of GDP) to $727 billion in 2013 (4.2% of GDP). It calls for the creation of a bipartisan debt commission to develop proposals to bring down the deficit further. It cuts or eliminates 126 programs that are currently not working, resulting in $20 billion in savings for the coming fiscal year. And, I am pleased that the House will likely vote to reinstate statutory pay-as-you-go legislation later this week, which helped turn record deficits into record surpluses in the 1990’s.”

“President Obama’s budget strikes a balance between meeting our budgetary challenges and implementing measures to bring prosperity back to the American people. Congress has a duty to ask hard questions of the Administration over the coming weeks as we hold hearings on the budget.”

####