Budget deal is missed opportunity to address runaway spending, Grassley says

Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa made the following comment on his vote against the budget deal approved by the Senate early this morning, October 30, 2015.

"Government shutdowns don't save money. They cost money, and they're best avoided.  Defaulting on the nation's debts is also something to avoid.  But this budget deal lifts the debt ceiling to enable new borrowing while missing opportunities to address long-term runaway spending and deficit problems. This bill will raise our already $18.1 trillion debt ceiling by hundreds of billions of dollars, without a single dollar of spending reduction in exchange.  It increases spending by $112 billion over the next two years, and pays for it with bad policy such as a $3 billion cut to crop insurance and raiding the crime victims fund and gimmicks such as oil sales and spectrum sales.  It undoes the bipartisan promise Congress made in 2011 to rein in runaway spending.  The lack of leadership from President Obama to take on the drivers of our long-term deficits and debt helped put us in this position.  This is a bad deal for America today, and it's even worse for our children and grandchildren.  This also was a bad deal on process.  The 144-page bill was put together behind closed doors, and members had just a couple days before voting on it.  This didn't give the Senate much of a chance as the deliberative body it's supposed to be."