Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2008

Floor Speech

AGRICULTURE, RURAL DEVELOPMENT, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2008 -- (House of Representatives - August 02, 2007)

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Mr. JORDAN of Ohio. Mr. Chairman, Members of the House, government spends too much money. Ask any American family, is government so lean, so efficient, has it tightened its belt so much that it just can't cut anymore, it has to spend what this bill purports to spend and wants to spend? And if you ask a typical American family that, you're going to get an overwhelmingly, No, government is too big; it spends too much.

And if you don't believe the American people and American families, look at the numbers. We have a $3 trillion budget we're dealing with here. We have an $8 trillion national debt. The government spends $23,000 per American household. We have an entitlement crisis that everybody knows is going to happen here in the next 10 to 15 years when you think about what we face in Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. And then this bill grows, over last year's spending level, 2 1/2 times the rate of inflation, 5.9 percent increase over last year, $1 billion increase in spending over what we did last year.

My amendment is real simple. Frankly, it's the same amendment I've offered, now this is the ninth time. All non-defense related appropriations bills we have offered this amendment to, and the amendment is real simple. It says we're not going to cut anything; we're just going to spend what we spent last year. A pretty modest first step in beginning to get a handle on the spending that is out of control with the Federal Government.

Because one thing I know for certain, I've said this several times, but it's so true in my time in public life. We always hear about tax and spend politicians. The truth is, it's spend and tax. Spending always drives the equation. More and more spending inevitably leads to higher taxes and more taxes. In fact, we've seen that from this body over the last several weeks, tax increases on American families, American business owners, tax increases that hurt those families, hurt our businesses, and ultimately hurt our economy.

This is a simple amendment which says, let's spend what we spent last year; after all, all kinds of families, all kinds of taxpayers, all kinds of business owners have had to do that time and time again. It's not too much to ask the Federal Government that has a $3 trillion budget, an $8 trillion debt, and spends $23,000 per household, it is not too much to ask the Federal Government to do the same thing.

And with that, Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. JORDAN of Ohio. I appreciate the Chair of the subcommittee and her work. But, frankly, the other side has got to get a new playbook. Every time we do this, they talk about devastating cuts and how it's going to ruin this, the sky is going to fall, the world is going to end, everything's going to go to, you know. They always use that. It's not even a cut. We're going to spend what we spent last year.

And just let me ask the question of the American people: Do you think, instead of spending $18.8 billion, do you think government can get along with spending $17.7 billion? We made it last year on that; didn't seem to be too much to ask before. We always hear it is a devastating cut when it's not even a cut.

Mr. Chairman, could I inquire as to the amount of time that we have remaining on each side.

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Mr. JORDAN of Ohio. Before yielding to my friend from Georgia, let me say this: the lady used the term ``take away.'' For the umpteenth time, we're not taking away anything. We want to spend what we spent last year. The reason we don't want to increase spending is because everybody knows, the American people know this, when you increase spending and spend and spend and spend, it leads to tax and tax and tax. And that's what hurts those same families the gentlelady was talking about.

When you take more of their money, money that they could invest in their kids, pay for their kids' education, pay for that vacation they want to take as a family, all kinds of things they want to spend it on, when you take that away from them, that's what really taking away from families is all about. That's what we want to stop.

With that, Mr. Chairman, I yield to the ranking member, my good friend from Georgia (Mr. Kingston), for the remainder of our time.

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