[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 43 (Thursday, April 6, 2006)]
[House]
[Page H1633]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 IT IS TIME TO BEGIN SETTING PRIORITIES

  Mr. CONAWAY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to claim the time 
of the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton).
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Texas?
  There was no objection.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Conaway) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CONAWAY. Mr. Speaker, I have recently introduced H. Res. 690, 
which would require this body to begin setting priorities. That is 
something the Federal Government, and Congress in particular, do not do 
a very good job at. In fact, we are really lousy at it, but it seems to 
me if we are able to set priorities on new spending, then we ought to 
be able to practice what H. Res. 690 would do which is require the 
House that anytime we create a new program of any size or scope, that 
we would have to, as part of that enacting legislation, eliminate an 
existing program of the same size or spending.
  We have tough choices to make, but we just do not make those choices 
very well. You can look at the CBO's Web site. They publish a 50-year 
study of what they think this Federal Government will look like in the 
year 2050.
  I have a grandson that will be about 53 years old at that point in 
time. The government that he will inherit, left unchecked, left 
unchanged, will be one that consumes 50 percent of the gross domestic 
product in this country, and there has never been a free market, free 
enterprise system anywhere where the central government could take half 
and the rest of us passed on the other half. We prosper by having 
growth in the standard of the living, opportunities and others kinds of 
things.
  So I believe that the growth in this Federal Government is the single 
biggest threat that we face as a country to our particular way of life.
  That sounds strange in a country at war, but the Taliban and al Qaeda 
and the thugs that threaten this country can get a few of us, but they 
cannot fundamentally change the way we live. They can hurt some of us 
and they try, and we work real hard to not let that happen, but this 
growth in this Federal Government I believe can in fact have a 
fundamental negative impact on the way our children and grandchildren 
will live.
  I said I am a grandfather. I've got six wonderful grandkids and one 
additional one on the way which will be born in November, if everything 
goes well. Which grandfather or grandmother among us would gather up 
their grandchildren, take them down to the nearest bank, and say, Mr. 
Banker, I want to borrow every single dollar in your bank, I want these 
six grandkids in my case, I want my six grandchildren to sign that 
note. I am going to take the money and spend it, but you are going to 
need to look to them to collect it. Well, there is not a grandparent 
worth their salt that would do that on an individual basis, but somehow 
collectively as a group we think that is okay because that is exactly 
what we are doing as we continue to spend money that our children will 
have to probably not pay back but will at least have to pay the debt 
service on and that impacts their way of life in a negative way.
  Every politician worth their salt will step before this microphone 
and say we need to cut Federal spending. It rolls off your tongue very 
easily. Both sides of the aisle say this on various occasions, but we 
rarely practice what we preach.
  I would like to point out tonight one program that I think would go 
away and no one would even notice that it is gone. We have in this 
country appropriated for 2006 money to provide an America's Job Bank. 
This is an Internet-based listing of job openings nationwide. It is 
maintained by good folks at the Department of Labor. Since this was 
established, the Internet of course has grown exponentially and has 
created such private enterprise-based sites as monster.com and 
careerbuilder.com which provide thousands and thousands and thousands 
of listings every day; and, in fact, this America's Job Bank is a 
duplication.
  Now the duplication only costs us $15 million, and that is a standard 
politician phrase, ``only $15 million.'' Well, $15 million is a lot of 
money for District 11 and is a program that I would include in those 
that ought to go away.
  As I mentioned, I have introduced H. Res. 690. We are working with 
the Rules Committee to try to implement this rule for the 110th 
Congress, and I would encourage my colleagues to support it. The reason 
I am doing it is I have got six grandchildren and one more on the way, 
and I cannot think of a better reason why we should not begin to do a 
better job in setting priorities for spending at in this Congress.

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