The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005

Floor Speech

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Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for his leadership on this issue and for constantly reminding those of us in this body that our work is to protect the family budget and be certain that we rein in that Federal budget.

To a comment, Mr. Speaker, that the gentleman from Texas just made, talking about government, and so many people feeling that many times there is nothing good that happens unless it comes from the Federal Government. I have constituents who remind me repeatedly that every time we have a new Federal Government program that is to cure some ill in our country, that there is a cost that comes with that. Yes, there is the cost that comes with putting that program in place, the operational cost, the funding cost. But there is also a second cost. That is, if the Federal Government steps in to fill a void, then neither the private nor not-for-profit sector is going to step in and fill that void.

Mr. Speaker, to be quite honest with you, over the past few days, as we have talked about the Deficit Reduction Act, and beginning to put this body on the right track to reducing, spending, restraining the growth of government and then beginning to right-size government, right-size and reform government, I said there is another one, and it is with every program, there is a difficulty with getting that program back under control, because every program has a bureaucracy and every bureaucracy has a constituency. That is another cost for each and every program. Of course, they are all good ideas, but is it the proper role of government.

To the gentleman from Texas, I appreciate the chart that he has about mandatory spending and talking about baseline spending in the chairman's mark. I would like to make a couple of comments on this. We have talked about the baseline calling for 6.4 percent growth over the next 5 years; and with the work that this body has already done and is continuing to do, we will see that growth move from 6.4 percent to 6.3 percent growth.

One of the things in our district we have talked about is that baseline. Now, as the gentleman from Texas says, the family budget, that is something where we sit down every year with a clean sheet of paper, a No. 2 pencil, and we start at zero and we work out and say what can we afford to put on particular categories this year. Unfortunately, taxes and fees seem to be the biggest of those categories. But we start with a clean sheet of paper and a No. 2 pencil.

Unfortunately, government does not do that. They start from what they spent this past year regardless of the effectiveness of the program, regardless of whether the program is still needed, regardless of whether it should be wound down, regardless of whether it has outlived its usefulness. That is where they start, with what they got last year.

Based on what they got last year, then they ask for an increase in that funding. Now, let us say they got $100 last year, and this year they are going to ask for $125. We come back and say, well, you can't have $125, but we'll give you $110. Then they are saying, oh, no, you've cut us $15. You can't do that. You can't do that. That's a cut.

As the gentleman from Texas said and the gentleman from Indiana, just a few moments ago, in Washington-speak, when you restrain the growth, that is a cut. That is the way many of those from the left who support constantly growing the bureaucracy, constantly giving the power and the money to bureaucrats in buildings, that is how they refer to this process.

For our constituents, I think it is so important that we work together on this, addressing that baseline, being certain we are restraining the growth and that we work to pull it down past 6.4 and 6.3 and reduce it even further and then get into that baseline and actually begin to make some reductions in that baseline in programs that may have outlived their usefulness.

I commend the gentleman from Texas for the work that he has done on the budget. I commend him for continuing to bring this issue and reminding us that it is important that the Federal budget continue to protect and work to protect the family budget.

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