WASHINGTON, D.C.--Following the Senate's overwhelming rejection of President Barack Obama's budget proposal by a vote of 99-0 today, Senator John Thune, a member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement:

"For the second year in a row, Senate Republicans and Democrats alike have soundly rejected the president's tax and spend budget. The budget proposal put forward by the president was full of the very same failed policies that led us to a national debt of $15.7 trillion and an unemployment rate over 8 percent for 39 consecutive months. According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, the president's budget would decrease America's economic growth by as much as 2.2 percent, which according to the president's former economic adviser, Christina Romer, would mean 2.2 million jobs lost. The president's fiscal policies have made a bad economic situation worse and it's no surprise he would want to fly around the country giving campaign speeches about the things Congress should or shouldn't be doing to distract from his policies of the past three and a half years.

"Meanwhile, the president's Democrat colleagues in charge of the Senate have failed to pass a formal budget for over three years, abdicating their most fundamental duty to the American taxpayer. Families and small businesses across the country are required to have a budget plan to guide their spending decisions and for the Senate to fail to pass a formal budget for 1,113 days is simply embarrassing."

President Obama's budget proposal introduced last year failed in the Senate by a vote of 97-0. The House of Representatives rejected the president's budget this year on March 28th by a vote of 414-0.