The President
has called for offsets to pay for hurricane relief and rebuilding.
The House
Leadership responded with a 4 point plan to pare spending growth.
These are good first steps. But, already there is slippage. Some
Members have balked at modest 2% across-the-board spending cuts.
Congress
must do more, not less. I believe that any Member of Congress
who cares about responsible spending must do two things: End pork
barrel spending, and postpone the new Medicare drug entitlement
for at least one year. These two measures will save taxpayers
$66 billion in the first year alone.
Recent calls
to return money earmarked for pet pork projects in the highway
bill have resonated with taxpayers throughout the country. Why?
Because Main Street Americans recognize that money is better spent
on hurricane recovery projects than on vanity projects like bike
trails and $220 million bridges to nowhere.
We cannot
tolerate passing along enormous debts to our children and grandchildren
just so politicians can continue to pass out pork back home.
I commend
those members such as Mike Pence, Jeff Flake, Jeb Hensarling,
Ron Lewis, and, yes, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who vowed to
give back most of her earmarks. “I would give them up to
help Katrina victims,” she said.
The rest
of Congress should join those members of both parties who are
willing to give up their earmarks to meet this huge national priority.
The line
in the sand is clear: Congress should rescind the highway bill
pork projects and redirect those funds to help rebuild infrastructure
along the Gulf Coast.
Further,
Congress must reject any attempts to lard up Katrina-related legislation
with new earmarks.
And finally,
Congress should declare an earmark moratorium for all up-coming
appropriations bills.
When asked
last week if he were a conservative, the President responded that
he was and “Proudly so.” I take him at his word.
He must give
an ironclad promise to veto any bill that crosses his desk with
earmarks attached – whatever it is. There must be no compromise
on that.
Of course,
fiscal responsibility demands more than simply a pork-free diet.
Current unfunded entitlement obligations have this nation on a
path to fiscal disaster.
We are less
than one generation away from Congress being unable to pay for
anything other than Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and interest
on the federal debt – leaving not so much as a penny for
defense or homeland security.
I repeat:
We are one generation away from Congress being unable to pay for
anything other than Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and interest
on the federal debt.
Too many
in Washington are in denial.
I had to
laugh—bitterly—at a recent memo rebutting a Heritage
paper calling for more spending restraint. This memo came from
a staff aide to my friend, the Senate Majority Leader.
He used specious
arguments to rationalize our government’s current spending
habits and still could not reach a more inspiring conclusion than
we’re in better shape than France.
To meet our
existing promises without exploding deficits, federal taxes will
have to grow more than 50 percent by 2030. Total taxation would
reach 36 percent of GDP, with severe consequences on America’s
economic growth.
And, I advise
my Senate staff friends that when that happens, France will look
good by comparison!
It’s
a future our children cannot afford. And so we must look beyond
merely diverting funds from low-priority programs to our highest
priorities. We must stop expanding universal entitlements when
we cannot meet our current obligations.
Congress
must, at a minimum, delay the Medicare prescription drug benefit
for one year. It would save $33 billion dollars and give Congress
time to figure out how to get Medicare costs under control.
No elected
official can be truly serious about getting spending under control
unless they embrace these two simple proposals – abandoning
all pork and delaying the prescription drug benefit. Those who
say they want to rein in spending are not serious if they reject
these basic building blocks of fiscal responsibility.
