The US economy is struggling under the weight of trillion-dollar deficits and high unemployment. Unfortunately, instead of stepping up and providing real leadership, the president has put forward a budget that is more campaign document than serious proposal. Undeterred by our stratospheric debt and high unemployment, the president has suggested adding a further $11 trillion to the debt over the next 10 years and raising taxes on job creators who are already struggling under burdensome government regulations. This is the exact opposite of what needs to be done to get our economy on a sound footing again. It's time for the president to stop worrying about his reelection and start offering serious proposals to reduce our nation's debt and create an environment in which private-sector job creation can flourish. The president also needs to abandon his attack on religious liberty and restore to all Americans the free exercise of their constitutional right to live in accordance with their religious beliefs.

The administration has already used Obamacare to justify an unprecedented level of intrusion into the personal health care decisions of Americans. Now the Obama administration is using the health care law to justify depriving Americans of one of their most basic rights: the right to freely practice their religion. America was founded on the belief that each person should be able to follow his or her religion and the dictates of his or her own conscience free from government interference. The Founders considered this right so fundamental that they chose to make it the first right listed in the Bill of Rights. Now the Obama administration has decided that Obamacare gives it the authority to overturn two hundred and twenty-five years of freedom and force Americans to pay for services that violate the tenets of their faith. This is an unacceptable government intrusion into matters of conscience, and Republicans will not let it stand.

U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following statement on the Senate floor Tuesday regarding the President's FY2013 budget:

President Obama has proposed exactly the wrong solution for American families and businesses. Instead of focusing on cutting our nation's debt and easing the burden on our nation's job creators, the president has proposed a budget that spends too much, taxes too much, and borrows too much. Furthermore, the president's budget leaves the future of Social Security and Medicare in jeopardy by failing to offer any meaningful entitlement reform. Once again, the president has failed to lead.