Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017
Floor Speech
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Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the recognition. I want to begin by saying I think the committee has done an amazing job with consistently making reductions in what they are spending. It is appropriate that we do that because we are $19.3 trillion in debt.
My amendment is a very simple reduction in spending. It is a penny out of a dollar--1 percent--across the board. I know it is not popular. I know everybody says it goes too far. But this will save us $321 million--of course, not a lot when you look at the total budget, but it is very appropriate that we begin to take these steps.
I think it is so interesting talking about Ronald Reagan and how he approached things. He would always say: Let's take a little bit, a few steps at a time and begin to get behind some of this and get our economy and get our government back in shape, right-size it.
That is exactly what he did, and it paid off for our country with economic growth, making certain that our economy was growing, and that our revenues were growing. Indeed, Mr. Chairman, since that time, we have seen our country doesn't have a revenue problem. What we have is a spending problem. What we have is a priority problem. What we fail to do time and time again is to realize that the taxpayers tell us they are overtaxed, our government is overspent, and they want us to consistently make as many spending reductions as we possibly can.
So I come, once again, to the floor with this 1 percent across-the- board spending cut. What it will do is to make that reduction of another $321 million to build on the success the committee has already shown with coming $64 million below the 2016 enacted levels. They are to be commended for that. But let's get in behind it. Let's compound these savings and begin to get our fiscal house in order.
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Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Chairman, I have heard every excuse that there is--always do--and I know that spending reductions are not popular around here. I get it. I know it. But let me tell you what I think also is not proper.
I think that it is immoral for us to spend money that we don't have-- it is not our money; it is taxpayer money--and to spend it on programs that our constituents don't want.
I think it is also immoral for us to not get our spending under control and to pass along all this debt to our children and our grandchildren. Just think about it. My grandsons, who are 7 and 8 years old, by the time they begin paying taxes, these programs, many of them, will have outlived their usefulness. The utilization of these dollars will be gone.
Do I hope we have the political will to look at the mandatory spending side of the column? Absolutely.
A couple of other points. I would hope that bipartisanship will come to reducing what we spend in this Chamber, that there will be agreement that we are, indeed, overtaxed and overspent, and the fiscal health of this Nation needs to be addressed.
I also think that what we need to look at is the burden of taxation has caused many of our constituents to face deferred maintenance on their homes, on their businesses, on their dreams, because they are having to pay their taxes, they are having to pay what the Federal Government takes out of those paychecks, first right of refusal on those paychecks. It also causes job loss.
It is time for us to address our overspending and our national debt. I do hope we see some work on the mandatory side of the column.
I urge a ``yes'' vote.
I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.
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