WASHINGTON - Today, Senator Mike Lee will co-sponsor legislation that eliminates the most common budgetary gimmicks used by Congress to hide hundreds of billions of dollars in spending. In the past six years alone, the tricks addressed in the Honest Budget Act (S.1651) have enabled Congress to spend over $350 billion, money that the country simply doesn’t have.

“For too long, Washington has been using budgetary tricks and gimmicks to hide the real cost of government spending,” said Senator Lee. “The federal budget is often nothing more than a shell game: a sleight-of-hand hoax that leaves Americans wondering where the real numbers are hidden. This is not how a transparent, responsible government functions. The people deserve better.”

The Honest Budget Act will put an end to disingenuous practices such as phony rescissions, abuse of the “emergency spending” designation, and certain types of automatic pay increases, as well as require a supermajority vote to proceed to a spending bill without a budget in place. 

In total, the HBA will eliminate nine different gimmicks that have been abused as part of ‘business as usual’ in Washington.

“This legislation is a significant step forward toward reforming how Washington works and putting the country on a fiscally sustainable path.”

For more information, please visit:

http://budget.senate.gov/republican/public/index.cfm/honest-budget-act