[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 74 (Tuesday, June 3, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H3247]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              REASONABLENESS IN SPENDING TAXPAYER DOLLARS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Smith] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SMITH of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, you know we are at the starting 
gate of a new era, I think, in the U.S. Congress of trying to look at 
what is reasonable and what is practical on the way we pay/spend 
taxpayers' dollars. We have just finished a debate and both sides have 
agreed that somehow Government is taking too much of the hard-earned 
money out of working families' pockets, so we are in a new attitude 
saying that too big a Government and too much taxes is bad for the 
people and it is bad for the economy.
  I think as we look over some of the weaknesses of this budget 
agreement, I suspect a couple of the areas that I would put at the top 
of the list are the way we have dealt and tried to figure out solutions 
for the reduction in spending of entitlement programs.
  Entitlement programs next year will use up 53 percent of the total 
Federal budget, and you know for a Congress that was developed and 
given the responsibility of not only deciding how much money was going 
to be spent and how it would be spent to evolve in today's situation 
where Congress really only has control of about 17 percent of the 
budget; if you consider that the 17 percent that goes into defense 
spending is almost on automatic pilot, because there is seldom a 
disagreement of more than a plus or minus 10 percent deviation between 
the hawks and the doves and the Republicans and the Democrats, we are 
left with discretionary spending that represents just under 17 percent 
of the Federal budget.
  Entitlement programs I think can be defined as anybody that is 
eligible for that money will automatically be paid those sums. Of 
course, the large spending items are Social Security taking 23 percent 
of the Federal budget now, Medicare, Medicaid, the welfare programs, 
the food stamp programs, the agricultural programs; all on automatic 
pilot, if you will, that Congress has lost control of and a majority in 
Congress can no longer adjust those spendings without the consent of 
the President.
  You know, I think a lot of people misunderstood what happened 2 years 
ago when Republicans said that we are going to take this discretionary 
spending and use it as leverage to try to change and slow down some of 
the increases in discretionary spending.
  Now, the Government closed down first 2 days, and then in December 
1995, 3 days, and then it came to March 1996, last year, and 
Republicans said, look, we are going to draw a line in the sand and we 
are not going to pass this discretionary spending bill that in effect 
runs the Federal Government unless the President agrees to submit a 
balanced budget.
  The President though, does whatever he does to make those decisions, 
decided, yes, I am going to do that. Now the whole world of Congress 
has changed, and everybody is saying yes, we want to balance the 
budget.
  I mean that is the good news, that is the great news, and now we are 
saying let us let people keep some of that hard-earned money in their 
pockets and start reducing taxes. That means reducing the size of this 
overwhelming huge Government that is now out of control.

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