Our Budget Process
Floor Speech
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Mrs. ERNST. Mr. President, I would like to thank my colleague from Georgia for spearheading this very important effort. We have heard discussions about getting back to regular order. We have heard discussions about the difference between the debt and the deficit and where do we go as America. So I am glad my colleague is investing his time in this effort, and we look forward to walking through that process.
It is good to see so many of us here today, engaged and very active in this effort, and so I would like to thank all my colleagues. I know a number have already spoken.
Truly, our Nation faces some very serious challenges and challenging budgetary times and all of that coming at us in the future. If we aren't honest about where we are right now and where we are headed in the future and fix it, our children and grandchildren are going to be handed a very heavy burden.
We are already over $19.5 trillion in debt and a level that is growing rapidly every single day. I am from Iowa, and back home in Iowa we generally don't talk about things in trillions of dollars or even in billions of dollars. So when you break it down, that debt load represents about $60,000 per person in this great country. That is quite a number, and one that all of us should be concerned about.
The American people are concerned, and they are frustrated with Washington for a reason. Washington doesn't seem to be serious about stopping the reckless spending habits this town has. That is why I think this proposal is a very interesting one and one that could provide opportunity as we move into the future.
As we stop and look at the reckless spending habits--and most Americans agree we have reckless spending habits here in Washington, DC.
I tend to agree with those Americans. I agree. Since coming to the Senate last year, I have worked to cut down wasteful and duplicative spending. Let me give just one example of taxpayer money that has been wasted.
Earlier this year, I introduced a bill that would limit the perks that wealthy former Presidents receive. In 2015, taxpayers spent $2.4 million on travel, office space, communications, personnel, and other expenses for past Presidents--I might add, wealthy past Presidents. At a time when they receive well-compensated book deals, speaking engagements, and all kinds of activities, hard-working Americans shouldn't foot those bills, and they shouldn't be expected to.
We passed that bill in the Senate and in the House with bipartisan work on that effort. Unfortunately, President Obama decided to veto it.
While we are still working on a path forward, it leaves me just as frustrated as all the other Iowans who know we can't continue spending money we don't have on things that aren't necessary.
Washington can't even do the basic business of balancing our own budget. Plain and simple, we should. Families in Iowa do it every day, and they expect us in Washington, DC, to do the same. After all, it is their tax dollars that are being spent, and it deserves to be spent wisely. Unfortunately, it might just take a complete overhaul of Washington's ways to help us solve this problem.
Again, I thank my colleagues for joining us in this effort. While some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have certainly made it very difficult, if not impossible, to conduct business in any sort of regular manner, the reality is excess spending in this town seems too often to be bipartisan.
I know my colleague from Georgia mentioned earlier our debt has ballooned under both Republican and Democratic administrations. We are far too often unable to take a good hard look at the money that is being spent because we often will get a 1,900-page bill at the last minute, and we are given the choice of either taking it or leaving it.
Normally, that is for funding most of our government. That kind of practice doesn't show us a good way forward. It forces us to make difficult choices about how we are spending taxpayer money, and it certainly doesn't give us the opportunity to cut wasteful spending. We have to do better by our taxpayers.
I thank my friend from Georgia and my other colleagues joining us today to help us start thinking about how we solve this crisis and how we can do it in a creative way. I again thank Senator Perdue for leading this effort, being at the tip of the spear, and hopefully we are moving toward a smarter way of doing business in Washington. If we don't do better, I am afraid the future of this great country will be a lot dimmer.
I thank the Senator and I appreciate the opportunity to be here.
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