Waiving Points of Order Against Conference Report on S. 1932, Deficit Reduciton Act of 2005
WAIVING POINTS OF ORDER AGAINST CONFERENCE REPORT ON S. 1932, DEFICIT REDUCTION ACT OF 2005 -- (House of Representatives - December 18, 2005)
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. WICKER. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Florida, who could also have mentioned that spending on Federal health research has almost tripled in the decade of Republican rule in this House of Representatives. So I am proud of the accomplishments we have made in that regard.
Mr. Speaker, there has been a great deal of debate tonight about the growth in the national debt, and certainly it is something we are very interested in. In the debate on the previous rule, accomplishments were pointed out on the discretionary spending side. That is spending that is controlled by the appropriations process. But we will never get a handle on deficit reduction, we will never be able to accomplish this challenge of the growth in the national debt unless we get a handle on our mandatory spending, those entitlement programs that are on autopilot. They spend year in and year out, whether there is an appropriation bill or not.
Mandatory programs will grow this year at a growth rate of over twice the inflation rate. If we do nothing about the mandatory spending programs, they will increase from their current 54 percent of the Federal budget to an unbelievable, unchecked 62 percent of total Federal spending in a decade. So clearly this is the key area in budget deficit reduction, and that is why we have a plan to implement reforms to provide savings for the American people in the area of mandatory programs.
One example, of course, would be the Medicaid program, a program which Governors, Democrat and Republican, from around the country have come to Congress about, saying please help us to save this valuable program by slowing the growth rate. Under the underlying bill that this rule would provide, Medicaid will grow at a rate of 7.5 percent over the next 10 years, instead of a rate of 7.7 percent. For these reasons, I support the rule and the underlying bill.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
http://thomas.loc.gov