[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 139 (Thursday, October 27, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H9344-H9349]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Kuhl of New York). Under the Speaker's
announced policy, the balance of the majority leader's hour is
reallocated to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hensarling).
Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, again it is obvious that those on the
other side of the aisle, the Democrats that we are trying to work with,
somehow believe that we do not have enough government, that somehow
there is no room for reform in the Federal budget.
Again, this chart shows that beginning in 1990 up to the present,
that Washington is now spending over $22,000 per household. This is for
only the fourth time in the entire history of the United States of
America that the Federal Government has spent this much money. It is
the first time since World War II, yet the Democrats say there is no
room for reform in the Federal budget; that instead we need to increase
taxes on hard-working American
[[Page H9345]]
families, or, even worse, that we somehow have to pass on more debt to
our children.
Mr. Speaker, we can do better. And, Mr. Speaker, this simply
amplifies the point, when you think about families, and I think about
them in my district back in Dallas and in east Texas, who work hard for
a living, some small businesspeople who have gone out to risk capital
and start a new business and maybe employ three or four people, look at
what has happened in the last 10 years.
You see the family budget, median family income for a family of four
has risen from roughly $45,000 to $62,000. That is this line here, Mr.
Speaker. But look at the same time what has happened to the Federal
budget? We have gone from about $1.6 trillion in 10 years to almost
$2.5 trillion.
In other words, the Federal budget is growing at least a third faster
than the family budget in just the last 10 years. And yet our
colleagues on the other side of the aisle, the Democrats, say, no,
there is no place for reform. There is just no place for reform in the
Federal budget, that somehow it is going to have to come out of the
family budget instead.
But we reject this, Mr. Speaker, and I guess because it is getting
close to Halloween, all of the sudden people are thinking about what
costumes are they going to go wear for Halloween. I have got a 3\1/2\-
year-old daughter who has decided to be Snow White. My 2-year-old son
is going to become Superman. And now I have noticed that the Democrats
want to don a mask called ``fiscal responsibility.'' The American
people are not going to buy into that costume, because their plans are
simply to spend more and more money because they do not believe in
reform.
Every time that we have passed a budget in the last 10 years, Mr.
Speaker, they have gone back and offered an alternative budget that
spends even more, yet they call that fiscal responsibility? Let us just
look in the past several years; for example, let us look at the budget
for fiscal year 2004. On June 25 they offered an amendment to add a
half a billion dollars to the Interior bill. On the same day they
offered an amendment to add $8 billion to our Labor-HHS appropriations
bill; on July 16 an amendment for almost half a billion dollars to the
Commerce bill.
Let us look at what happened last year. Well, on June 9, an amendment
to increase subcommittee allocations by $14 billion; on June 23, an
amendment to increase subsidies to businesses by $79 billion; and now
for our physical fiscal 2006 appropriations process, an amendment to
increase foreign aid by almost a half a billion dollars.
Mr. Speaker, I think the American people are seeing a pattern here.
It is a pattern of increased spending.
{time} 1830
Again, as all this spending is done, sooner or later, somebody has to
pay the piper.
Mr. Speaker, right now, as the Democrats have tried to fight every
reform that we have brought forth, we know what is happening to our
budget. We know that it is spiraling out of control, growing at a huge
multiple over the family budget that one day is going to cause a day of
reckoning.
This chart, for example, shows what is going to happen over the next
generation when we look at Medicare growing at 9 percent a year,
Medicaid at 7.8 percent a year, when we look at Social Security growing
5.5 percent a year. We know when the economy grows at a pretty good
pace, that might be 3.5 percent.
Look at this chart here. Right now, the amount of money that we are
spending, roughly 20 percent of the economy on government, in just one
generation, if we do not engage in this process of reform, using the
Washington term ``reconciliation,'' which is a process we started
today, if we do not engage in this reform process, this is the future
that the Democrat Party wants to provide us. That is a doubling of the
size of government in one generation, and that is if they do not come
up with anything new. That is just on the programs that we have today,
Mr. Speaker. I believe that is simply going to be unconscionable.
Now, again, the Democrats tell us that there is simply no place that
we can reform and that somehow reforms lead to massive budget cuts for
the poor. Well, we think there is another way that we can help poor
people in America, and we believe it has a lot more to do with a
paycheck than a welfare check. We want to ensure that the social safety
net is there; but, Mr. Speaker, there is something better, and that is
a paycheck.
Under the economic policies of this administration and this
Republican Congress, all of the sudden we have created now 4 million
new jobs. Four million new jobs have been created. People have hope.
They have opportunity. They can put food on the table. They can put a
roof over their head, and that had everything to do with the policies
of this administration and this Republican Congress.
So in many respects, Mr. Speaker, it is not a debate about how much
money we are going to spend on housing, how much money we are going to
spend on education and on nutrition; but it is a debate about who is
going to do the spending.
The Democrat Party can only measure compassion in the number of
welfare checks. We measure compassion in the number of paychecks. We
are helping empower the American people to have their nutritional
program, to have their educational program, to have their housing
program.
Mr. Speaker, I am very honored that we have been joined by a couple
of other colleagues here tonight who I know have a great insight into
our programs for fiscal responsibility, into our programs to try to
bring some accountability to the Federal Government, to engage in
reforms that could help the American people and actually deliver better
health care at a cheaper cost, better housing at a cheaper cost.
One of these Members that we have been joined by, who is a great
leader in the freshman class and who is no stranger here to the floor
of the House, is the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Price), my colleague;
and I would be very happy to yield to the gentleman from Georgia.
Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for
yielding, and I just want to say how honored I am to join you this
evening for what is such a contrast to what is being offered on the
other side of the aisle. The calm and reasoned and logical and
thoughtful approach that you and others have taken I think is just so
wonderful and heartwarming, frankly, to all Americans to know that
there are individuals that are as thoughtful and logical in their
approach to, truly, the challenges that we have.
Before I begin, I do want to make a comment about what has seemed to
become a nightly ritual, which is a level of personal attacks from the
other side that frankly does a disservice to the discussion and the
debate, and it really is a shame to see.
We have really a once-proud party on the other side of the aisle that
has degraded into what may be known as the ABC game, which is accuse
and blame and criticize, really with no positive outlook and no
positive proposals for the future.
When they do offer alternatives, as my colleague from Texas just
mentioned, what their alternatives do is significantly increase the tax
burden on Americans, significantly increase the size of government and
the scope of government; and as was mentioned, they have offered some
significant increases just of late. So I would like to share with the
Members, Mr. Speaker, a couple of graphics that will demonstrate that.
This demonstrates if the other side had their way, just so far this
year in their proposals, for the next 5 years the amendments that they
have offered would have added an increase in the amount of spending of
over $67 billion. This is actually out of date a little bit because we
have not got another bit to share with the Members something that
happened today in committee, but $67 billion of increased spending.
What about the increase in taxes that they have proposed? As was
mentioned, the only alternatives that they truly put on the table are
an increase in the amount of spending and an increase in taxes, which
certainly increases the size and scope of government. The amount of
increased tax revenue that they have recommended to date, $392 billion.
Even in Washington, that is a lot of money, and many of these taxes
obviously come out of small business and other business, which means
jobs.
[[Page H9346]]
I think it is important that people recognize and remember what
happens daily here and what has happened during this session alone.
We had a really very lean budget that was adopted by Congress,
without a single vote, without a single Member of the other side, the
Democrat Party, voting in favor of that budget. In fact, they were
instructed by their leadership not to support it, and one of the
members of their leadership bragged, I guess in essence, quote, they
will not get a single vote on this budget. Now that is the kind of
leadership that they are offering.
The level of change that we have to fight for here, although it is
significant because it is moving in the correct direction, is really
not huge, and there is a great graph that I have. This graph I think
says so much. Pictures really can say so much more than just words.
This is the proposal for Medicaid changes that we have recommended,
the savings in Medicaid, frankly, that increase and empower
individuals; but you see the blue line here is without reform. The
reform measures that we adopted and recommended you see are the red
line. That is the difference over a 5-year period. That is what their
screaming is all about. That is the hyperbole that they refer to when
they talk about the kind of reform that we offer.
Today, in the Committee on Education and the Workforce, we were
struggling with how to provide appropriate moneys to allow the 300,000
students who have been displaced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita the
opportunity to go to school wherever they may now find themselves. The
proposal that we put on the table had about 7 to $9,000 per student,
which is relatively consistent with the kinds of moneys being spent
around the Nation. The Democrat proposal that they put on the table in
our committee, and it was defeated, but the Democrat proposal was to
spend over $26,000 per student, adding literally billions to the cost
of government. I do not know anybody that believes that that is a
reasonable amount to spend on something that is as needed; but
certainly, we do not need to increase the size and scope of government
to do so.
The record of fiscal responsibility of the Republican Caucus and this
Republican government really is very, very strong. What that fiscal
responsibility has done is cut the budget significantly.
This year alone, the fiscal year 2005, which is already done, this is
not projection, this is already done, cut the budget by nearly $100
billion, cut the deficit by nearly $100 billion, from $412 billion to
$319 billion. So it is a remarkable demonstration of the resolve that
we have.
When we have the challenges that we have had with the hurricanes and
the like, I think it is important for people to appreciate that the
Republicans always return to principle. Always, and first and foremost
in the area of government spending for our side, as a principle, is
that the taxes that Washington collects are not government money. They
are the people's money. So we need to be absolutely as responsible as
we can be with that.
As I mentioned, we decreased in 2005 the deficit by nearly $100
billion. What other results are there that we can point to that
demonstrate that fiscal responsibility? Nondefense, nonhomeland
domestic discretionary spending this year in the House is on track to
be below last year's level, and that is for the first time since the
Reagan administration. That is true fiscal responsibility.
House Republicans have passed legislation trying to find 35, and
hopefully 50, billion dollars in savings in the mandatory programs.
This is the first time since 1997. House Republicans have recommended
zeroing out the budget, the funding, for 98 Federal programs that are
wasteful, that duplicate services, and that are out of date. Anybody in
America, if they were to look at the kinds of programs that are
offered, I am certain would agree that there are government programs
that are certainly wasteful, that there are government programs that
offer the same thing that another program does, and many, many programs
are out of date.
We have identified 98 of those Federal programs, and we are trying to
make it so that we zero the funding for that so those programs are no
longer on the books and no longer have that government waste. These
savings themselves would save about $4.3 billion.
For the first time since 1994, Congress has temporarily funded the
government at the lowest level that is possible by law as we complete
our work on the budget process; and last year we held the growth in
nonsecurity discretionary spending to 1.4 percent, less than inflation.
So that is true, I believe, fiscal responsibility; and the record is
clear. The record shows that the party of fiscal discipline is the
Republican Party.
You say, well, what kind of results are we seeing in the economy with
those kinds of policies? The gentleman from Texas alluded to many of
the positive items that we are seeing in the economy.
Real GDP grew by 3.8 percent in the first quarter of this year, but
what we are seeing is the strongest growth performance and one of the
strongest growth performances in the past 20 years.
Payroll employment, that was mentioned, is up by nearly 3.7 million
jobs in the past months. That is 3.7 million people that have
employment that did not have it before.
The unemployment rate is down to 4.9 or 5.1, depending on the month,
over the last quarter. We used to learn in economics that an
unemployment rate of between 5 and 6 percent was full employment
because you have got folks that are either moving or they are changing
jobs or the like, make it so that 5 percent unemployment is essentially
full employment. That 5 percent is less than the average for the decade
of the 1970s, the 1980s, and the 1990s. Again, fiscal responsibility
and true results from that kind of responsibility.
Manufacturing industrial production is up 3.4 percent over the past
year and by 9.5 percent in the last 2 years.
Real business equipment investment has increased by 13.5 percent at
an annualized rate over the past 2 years. That is the best sustained
growth in over 6 years, truly a remarkable performance, and the economy
is the beneficiary of the programs that have been put in place by this
Republican Congress and this Republican administration.
{time} 1845
One of the things that I think is so incredibly important, when we
look at how does it get down to the community and down to those people
on the street, what we are seeing in terms of personal homeownership,
it is at an all-time record rate, 70 percent or thereabouts. That
record rate stretches across all demographic categories of our society.
So the results of this fiscal responsibility are very clear.
The results of the policies that have been put in place by this
Republican Party, this Republican Congress, and this Republican
administration have demonstrated clearly there is greater success for
greater numbers of people.
So I am proud to stand before my colleagues tonight and to
participate in this discussion of what is truly fiscal responsibility
in a thoughtful and a reasoned and calm manner, and I commend the
gentleman from Texas for organizing this hour. I look forward to being
back to talk about these issues and more.
Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman's leadership
and sharing his insights with us. I would like to try to amplify a
couple of his points.
Again, there is a big debate and all of a sudden the Democrats are
claiming to be the party of fiscal responsibility. They are claiming
something that they have claimed for 50 years, that somehow the
Republicans when we try to reform government, that we are engaging in
massive budget cuts that will hurt the poor.
Mr. Speaker, we are engaged in this process in Washington known as
reconciliation, which is really a Washington term that means that we go
back to our committees and say find a way to do it better. Let us be
more accountable. Let us be more respectful of the family budget and
figure out a way to do things better in the Federal budget. So we have
something that is known as mandatory spending, which includes a lot of
the welfare programs.
Mr. Speaker, as we attempt to reform a number of these programs, as
we attempt to get better health care and
[[Page H9347]]
better housing at a lower cost, look at what we are trying to do. In
the next 5 years, if we are successful in this plan, and so far our
colleagues on the other side of the aisle, the Democrats, have said
that none of them are going to help us, at the end of the day what we
call mandatory spending is going to grow at 6.3 percent a year instead
of 6.4 percent a year. That is the massive budget cut?
First, there is no cut. Only a liberal Democrat or an accountant for
Enron would call 6.3 percent increase in the growth of mandatory
spending a cut. All we are trying to do is reform programs, make them
more accountable to the American people, and slow the rate of growth.
People are entitled to their own opinions, but they should not be
entitled to their own facts. Even after we do this, we will end up
spending more of the people's money next year than we did last year.
When you think about the charges that our colleagues on the other
side of the aisle are lodging, we should also remember that these were
the very same people who said that welfare reform would be horrible,
that it would be the end of the world as we know it. We had such quotes
like from the Democrat leader in the House at the time that a million
children would be forced into poverty. One of the Democrat leaders in
the Senate said that if we have welfare reform, we will have trauma
that we have not known since the cholera epidemics, and the rhetoric
went on and on and on.
Mr. Speaker, what happened? I can tell Members what happened. Case
loads fell in half and millions and millions and millions found jobs,
hope, and opportunity. The poorest 20 percent of single-mother families
had a 67 percent increase in their earnings once we had welfare reform.
Millions were able to leave the rolls. Child poverty fell when we
reformed the welfare programs, and 1.4 million children have been
lifted out of poverty due to welfare reform.
So we kind of have to check the source. Reforms can work, and they
must work for the American people. There are so many different ways
that we can improve health care and housing and do it in a way that
saves American families money. Right now we could save $1.5 million a
year in Medicaid if we just based drug payments on actual acquisition
costs. We could save 2 to 3 billion a year if we would stop improper
payments for States that do not qualify for the payments.
Mr. Speaker, if we would pass a simple, meaningful medical liability
reform bill, we could save 5 to 10 percent on the cost of health care
in America.
In 2003, the Federal Government can now not account for $24 billion
that was spent, and yet the Democrats say we cannot reform government.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2001 in the last
year of the Clinton administration spent $3.3 billion paying out money
to people who did not qualify for the program. That was 10 percent of
their entire budget, yet the Democrats tell us there is no room for
reform in the Federal budget.
The Advance Technology Program spends $150 million annually
subsidizing private businesses, 40 percent of which goes to Fortune 500
companies. Yet the Democrats tell us there is no room for reform in the
Federal budget.
There was a time quite recently when Medicare would spend five times
as much on a wheelchair as the Veterans Administration. Same model and
manufacturer. Why? Because one would competitively bid and the other
would not, and so they just wasted that money. Yet the Democrats would
tell us that somehow we are hurting Medicare recipients when we cease
to pay five times as much for a wheelchair as we should have.
Fortunately, we have caught that one, and we have remedied that; but we
have 10,000 Federal programs spread across 600 agencies. There is so
much room for reform.
When families are working hard to make ends meet, we need to be
leaders in finding reforms in the Federal budget. I am very happy that
tonight we are joined by one of the great deficit hawks and fiscal
hawks that we have in the United States Congress, a real leader in
helping root out a lot of the duplication and waste and fraud, a lot of
the abuse that we find in the Federal budget.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goode).
Mr. GOODE. Mr. Speaker, I want to salute the gentleman from Texas
(Mr. Hensarling), the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Price), and the
gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn) for their being here
tonight and focusing on the need to reduce spending.
I have heard from a number of citizens as we are discussing our
budgetary situation facing this Congress, this Nation, and our country.
Many have said, please, the problem is not taxes too low; the problem
is spending too high.
The gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hensarling) is vice chairman of the
Republican Study Committee. The Chair is the gentleman from Indiana
(Mr. Pence). These gentlemen and others, the men and women that make up
the RSC, were leaders in focusing on Operation Offset. Our Nation has
faced expenditures this year that 6 months ago, 8 months ago were not
expected. I believe that their focus on Operation Offset is a correct
approach.
The first thing we need to do in looking at the aftermath of
hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma and the other hurricanes that have
hit the United States this year is do not spend unnecessarily in
dealing with these tragedies.
After that, we need to focus on savings in any way we can to deal
with those problems and to manage our fiscal affairs as best as
possible.
One area that I think needs to be trimmed is foreign aid. Foreign aid
for the last 3 fiscal years has hovered around $20 billion. In fiscal
year 2005, it was between 19 and $20 billion. But that does not include
the hundreds of millions that were in the supplementals that were
passed in fiscal year 2005. We can look at across-the-board cuts in
that area of appropriations and I think have very little negative
impact on American citizens.
Another area that we need to focus on is stopping illegal
immigration. This costs the United States taxpayers billions of dollars
every year. Now, I have seen wide estimates on how much the cost is to
the Federal Treasury each year because of illegal immigration. The
Center for Immigration Studies has estimated $10 billion. The
Federation of Americans for Immigration Reform estimates $45 billion. A
few months ago, I heard Bill O'Reilly on Fox News state that the figure
was $68 billion. There may be disagreement as to the exact figure, but
there can be no disagreement that the cost is billions upon billions of
dollars to the American taxpayer.
This Congress and the Republican conference have been very supportive
of community health centers. They have gotten significant increases in
their budgets each of the last several fiscal years. But they have a
situation that confronts many other health care providers. When persons
come in the door, they have to treat those persons. I believe that some
of the governments of those countries south of us have steered their
citizens to those entities and to our hospitals, and they know the
ropes. Emergency care cannot be denied anyone, whether they are legally
or illegally in the United States, particularly emergency room service.
A person has to be served.
One way we can stop the influx of those who are not supposed to be in
this country to our health centers, to our emergency rooms, to other
health care providers is to stop them before they get here. I and
others are working on legislation. Some would focus on a fence. I have
a bill that would provide for a fence along the southern boundary.
Other have suggested much tighter border enforcement, increased border
patrol, while others say we need greater enforcement in the interior.
We need to have the local sheriff and local chief of police, municipal
officers, all have the authority to deal with this situation and have a
partner with immigration services if they are detained or held at the
local level, that they would be assured of cooperation and removal from
the locality back to their home countries.
We also have an impact on social services, and that is billions of
dollars. So one area where we could save a lot of money would be to
simply enforce our laws against illegal immigration, stop it at the
border and in the interior, remove those that are not here legally with
a proper visa or proper green card or other proper work permit.
Another area of concern to me is the overuse of government credit
cards.
[[Page H9348]]
Another member of the RSC has proposed the Government Credit Card
Sunshine Act. Following Hurricane Katrina, we had to raise the limit on
credit card maximums. Now, I understand the need for our FEMA officials
to have the use of credit cards, but in the Federal Government I
believe we have overused credit cards. I know in my office, I do not
use credit cards. Our congressional office is certainly not like FEMA,
it is not like law enforcement, and it is not like the DEA. I know you
have to have them in some situations, but I support the Government
Credit Card Sunshine Act, which would require the posting, except in
classified situations and certain law enforcement situations, of
expenditures by government credit cards within 15 business days after
the expenditure goes through.
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A check of some of the credit card abuses involve payment for Ozzie
Osborne concert tickets, tattoos, gambling, cruises, exotic dance
clubs, car payments, and the like. This is an example of waste in the
Federal Government that needs to be stopped, and I think this act would
go a long way to stop that.
This evening I have covered areas where we can focus on that will
reduce the amount of Federal expenditures. But I want to close by
emphasizing something that the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hensarling),
the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Price), and the gentlewoman from
Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn) emphasized. We are focusing on the savings
by curtailing the rate of growth. We are not even saying there shall be
no growth. We are saying we just do not want the rate of growth to
continue at such a rapid and accelerated pace. By curtailing the rate
of growth, we can do a tremendous benefit for all of the taxpayers of
the United States of America.
Mr. HENSARLING. Madam Speaker, reclaiming my time, I thank the
gentleman for his comments, and I certainly thank him for his
leadership.
Madam Speaker, we have now heard just example after example of waste
that is in the Federal budget, fraud that is in the Federal budget, not
to mention the duplication which is in the Federal budget.
We need to remember, Madam Speaker, that when it comes to paying for
government, there are really only three different places where we can
find money as we go forward and try to balance this budget.
Number one, we are either going to increase taxes on the American
people, or we are going to continue to pass even more debt on to our
children because we care more about the next election as opposed to the
next generation, or we will engage in this process that we are engaged
in today to find reforms in the government. And we have heard example
after example after example.
Madam Speaker, I now would like to talk about really the tax side of
the equation, because so many of our friends and colleagues from the
other side of the aisle say the root cause of all of America's fiscal
problems lie in tax relief, that tax relief somehow has caused and
fueled all these deficits. We hear it speaker after speaker after
speaker.
Well, Madam Speaker, first let me say this: If tax relief is the
source of all of our problems, as we can see by this chart, let us
assume for a moment that tax relief does absolutely no good, that all
we are doing is wasting money when we allow small businesses and the
American family to keep more of their hard-earned money. Even if that
was true, Madam Speaker, we can see by this chart here that out of the
budget we have passed, tax relief is less than 1 percent. Less than 1
percent. So even if Members accept the fact that all we are doing is
taking this tax relief money and throwing it away, 99 percent of our
challenges in fiscal responsibility actually sit on the spending side.
And this, Madam Speaker, is a very important chart because, again, we
will hear from our friends on the other side of the aisle speech after
speech about how tax relief is driving the deficit. Well, since we
passed tax relief under President Bush and a Republican Congress, Madam
Speaker, look at what has happened. Tax revenue has gone from $1.7
trillion in 2003 to $1.8 trillion in 2004, to $2.1 trillion in 2005.
And, Madam Speaker, if people do not want to believe me, they should go
to the United States Treasury report. Look it up. Individual tax
revenues are up 15 percent. Corporate tax revenues are up almost 50
percent.
How is this happening? How do we cut tax rates and somehow get more
tax revenue? It is pretty obvious to me, Madam Speaker. For example, I
look at people in my district back in Texas, east Texas. I went to
visit an industry called Jacksonville Industries. It is aluminum and
dye cast business in Jacksonville, Texas. They employ 20 people. Prior
to having the tax relief, due to competitive pressures they were on the
verge of having to lay off two people, which in their case, a small
business, was 10 percent of their workforce. But because of tax relief,
Madam Speaker, they were able to go out and buy a huge new machine, and
I do not remember what it is called. I could not even tell the Members
what it does. But it is big, it is noisy, and it made them more
competitive. And instead of having to lay off two people, they hired
three new people.
Think about it, Madam Speaker. Listening to our friends on the other
side of the aisle, they would say, wait a second, that is five people
who could have been on welfare, and that is five people who could have,
those are five people who could have been on food stamps, those are
five people who could have been on a government housing program, and
that is how they measure compassion: How many government checks do we
write?
But, Madam Speaker, under our program, under the tax relief, not only
do we have more tax revenue, but guess what? We have created jobs. Four
million jobs across America. Got a few more in Jacksonville, Texas, at
Jacksonville Industries. So instead of having five people on
unemployment, five people on welfare, we have five people who have good
jobs. They are able to put a roof over their head. They are able to put
food on their table for their children.
Madam Speaker, that is what compassion is. Compassion is not measured
by the number of welfare checks we write. It is measured by the number
of paychecks we create.
So I just cannot believe how we continually hear this argument that
somehow tax relief is driving the deficit, and somehow tax relief is
causing all of America's fiscal woes. Madam Speaker, it is simply not
true.
But, Madam Speaker, what is true, again, even if all of the big
spending plans of the Democrats, if we are able to fight them back,
even with the programs that we have on the books today, unless we
reform, unless they will work with us in this reconciliation process,
again look at what is going to happen. In just one generation,
government is going to grow from 20 percent of our economy to almost 40
percent of our economy, in just one generation. We are on the verge of
being perhaps the first generation in America to leave our children a
lower standard of living because we cannot work together and reform
some of these out-of-control programs that are growing way beyond our
ability to pay for them.
Now, our friends on the other side of the aisle want to rail against
our tax relief, but what they will not own up to are their own tax
increases. In order to pay for all of this government, all of this out-
of-control, growing government, this is what is going to have to
happen: And that is these are tax increases needed to fund all of our
current projected spending without deficits. They say they want to
balance the budget, but they refuse to reform any government program,
notwithstanding all the waste and fraud and abuse and duplication that
we have pointed out this evening. They just refuse to join with us in
that process.
So what is the consequence of their unwillingness to help reform
government? Taxes are going to go up, on a family of four in just one
generation, $10,000. We are going to have to double taxes on the
American people just to balance the budget in 30 years, and it is going
to go up and up and up.
And, Madam Speaker, that is why it is so critical that we come
together, Democrat, Republican, Independent. This is the future we are
looking at. It is like the Dickens of ``Christmas Carol.'' This is the
ghost of Christmas yet to come. There is still time to do
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something about this. Again, there are so many ways that we can get
better health care, better housing, better nutrition at a lower cost.
But we are going to have to come together as a Congress, as the
American people, and find smarter, better ways to run a number of these
programs.
We cannot simply measure compassion by the number of government
checks that are written. True compassion is empowering people. True
compassion is creating new jobs so that the American people can fund
their housing program, their nutritional program, their education
program.
Madam Speaker, it is not a debate, again, about how much money we are
going to spend on these worthy goals, but it is a debate about who is
going to do the spending. Democrats clearly want the government and
government bureaucrats to do the spending. We want American families to
do the spending, and that is the difference. It is really two different
visions about the future of America. One wants more government and less
freedom. Our vision is one of less government and more freedom and
greater opportunity throughout this land, Madam Speaker.
So I think it is going to be a very important debate that takes place
in the weeks to come. But, again, in order to avoid the future of
either passing debt on to our children or doubling taxes on the
American people, there is only one alternative, and that is to come
together and reform these out-of-control programs before we leave the
next generation a lower standard of living than we enjoy. That is
unconscionable, Madam Speaker, and there can be a better, better future
for all of our children if we will work together and reform out-of-
control spending.
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