Lankford Urges Obama to Prioritize A Balanced Budget
Oklahoma Rep. James Lankford pushes President Barack Obama to commit to balanced budget
By Chris Casteel
WASHINGTON — Rep. James Lankford on Wednesday tried to get President Barack Obama to support the goal of balancing the budget in 10 years, but the president told him that it wouldn’t benefit the economy, Lankford said.
At a closed-door meeting between House Republicans and the president on Capitol Hill, Lankford, R-Oklahoma City, also told Obama the Old Testament story of Isaiah’s prophecy about King Hezekiah — that he had saved Jerusalem for his lifetime but it set it up for destruction later.
“That’s my concern for where we’re headed right now,” Lankford said he told the president and added that annual interest payments on the debt are expected to top $800 billion in 10 years.
Lankford, the chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee, asked the first question to Obama, and said in an interview later that he started out by noting that the president frequently campaigns against the House GOP. Better, Lankford said, would be to act on the matters where there’s common ground.