Washington, D.C. — 

Senator John Thune (R-S.D.), Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, issued the following statement regarding the budget proposal unveiled by Senate Democrats this evening:

“After four years and nearly $6 trillion added to our national debt, today the Senate Democrats finally unveiled their budget blueprint. Republicans hoped that the Democrats’ budget proposal would include policies that would stimulate economic growth, including reining in Washington’s dangerous levels of spending and debt. Instead, Senate Democrats today proposed a budget that would increase spending by 62 percent over the next decade, and would never balance. Their budget would raise taxes on Americans by $1.5 trillion to pay for increased spending—this is on top of the $1.7 trillion in tax increases already signed into law during the Obama administration. The policies of big spending and big government have led to a dismal average economic growth rate of just 0.8 percent over the past four years. It’s time to grow the economy, not the government.”