Pat Toomey has been been an unusually active freshman member of the Senate.
Last year, he served on the super committee, which worked to find a plan to reduce the deficit by $1.2 triSen. Pat Toomey has made a name for himself in GOP circles in Washington. During a speech Tuesday morning at the Brookings Institute, the freshman Senator explained his proposal to reform the federal tax code. institllion. Despite the committee’s failure, Toomey’s own proposal there was hailed as the serious and compromise-minded – not to mention the only one set down, in detail, on paper.
His budget proposals in 2011 and 2012 earned more Senate votes than any other offered, Democrat or Republican. He was recently named successor to Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) as Chair of the Senate Steering Committee, the group of GOP Senators separate from leadership who guide conservative policy in the chamber.
He continued this aggressive trend Tuesday morning during a speech at Brookings Institute in Washington, D.C.
During the half hour speech, Toomey discussed the fiscal cliff, the failure of the Super Committee and outlined his federal tax code reform, identifying the “big problem” as entitlement programs:
“The truth is that our big entitlement programs, Social Security included, but especially the mandatory health care programs, are unsustainable. I think we all know that. They’re driving the medium and long-term fiscal disaster that’s accelerating toward us.”
“This year, 2012, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and other mandatory health programs already constitute 42 percent of federal spending. By 2022, these programs alone, together with interest on our debt, are projected to consume about 90 percent of the portion of GDP that we have historically collected in taxes.”
Toomey outline the broad strokes of his plan, which echoes his previous proposals.
“Let me get into the specifics, the dollar figures. We were proposing $750 billion in spending cuts, $500 billion in revenue, interest savings that would be $200 billion approximately over the course of 10 years, total deficit reduction of $1.5 trillion.”
Critics, like Washington Senator Patty Murray, have accused Toomey of gutting entitlement programs like Medicare at the same time as he gives tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans.
He acknowledged, “I know I’m not going to get my way on everything. The entitlement reform that we do isn’t going to look exactly the way I would write the plan. But we do have to agree on the fundamental problem, we do have to face the facts that these programs need to be reformed.”
Toomey’s active reputation has translated into sustained financial support. Despite not being up for re-election until 2016, he has raised $592,000 in the Q2 and has $1.55 million left on hand.
You can view his full speech and read the transcript here.
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7 Responses
“The tax breaks for wealthy Americans” is a deceptive technique invented to mislead some naïve voters. As it was proven again and again with specific figures, there are not enough rich people to make a difference, but some people just will not allow themselves to get distracted by facts. I am one of such rich people. My annual income is somewhere at around $400,000. However, according to my bookkeeper I am paying whatever taxes I am supposed to pay. If however, I would be taxed some extra I don’t mind (provided it is fair and legal). In my mind comrade Lenin was the last guy to try to take it from the rich and give it to the poor. Since when do we Americans go witch hunting? We are supposed to be a nation of constructive and honest people. Rather than launching a holy war on rich people we should change our tax laws to make corporations to want to seek US residency rather than European. Also, while I am not naïve enough to think that I can change anybody’s mind by this comment here, but I strongly believe that if we would reduce our Government by 50%, this country would get back on track soon.
I’m sure I’m not the only person who believes this, but; Romney-Toomey ’12??
I believe ALL spending should be up for review, including military. That said, military spending is a drop in the bucket compared to what entitlement spending eats out of our budget. Plus, military spending is not “fixed” – it can be changed year to year. Entitlement spending – without reform – cannot be. Look at the figures: entitlements will eat up an ever growing portion of the budget without reform regardless of what you do to every other spending item.
“The truth is that our big entitlement programs, Social Security included, but especially the mandatory health care programs, are unsustainable. I think we all know that. They’re driving the medium and long-term fiscal disaster that’s accelerating toward us.”
Okay. I’ll be all for cutting and/or reorganization of these programs. But before we touch them, we eliminate corporate welfare and cut/reorganize defense spending.
We are very fortunate to have a Senator who is smart enough to understand the extent of the problem and honest enough to give us the truth.
Good work from Toomey. He just needs to know that he’ll need to compromise his plan if he wants it passed. We’ve got two hard-working Pat’s in PA, Toomey and Meehan!
This guy is terrible! Probably one of the worst Senators ever. He wants to gut entitlement programs as if that’s the problem. The real issue with the federal budget is our bloated military spending and the fact that millionaires and billionaires are not paying their fair share in taxes. Cutting Healthcare, Medicare and Social Security benefits for people who earned these entitlements is not the solution. Pat Toomey is an enemy of working class people because all he wants to do is make Americans poorer and be beholden to his buddies in the so-called “Club for Growth” so that they can horde all of the wealth as if they earned it and shell out pennies to the workers who actually do the real back-breaking work. Pat Toomey is a filthy animal who needs to be taken out in 2018.