Conference Report on S. Con. Res. 70, Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2009

CONFERENCE REPORT ON S. CON. RES. 70, CONCURRENT RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2009 -- (House of Representatives - June 05, 2008)

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Mr. JORDAN of Ohio. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, Congress right now is a dysfunctional place. We've got terrorists who want to kill us, and we can't pass the FISA law. We've got $4 gas, and we can't drill for more oil. And now in the face of a $10 trillion national debt, we have a budget in front of us that has the largest tax increase in history and is the largest budget in history. It just doesn't make sense.

In this time of economic uncertainty, with record-high energy prices, with the cost of food and fuel taking an increasing share of the family budget, Congress has a moral responsibility, a moral responsibility, to find ways to tighten its belt. Congress should be laser focused on cutting wasteful and redundant spending from the Federal budget in order to lower taxes to let families and business owners and taxpayers keep more of what they earn.

This budget, the largest in human history, does exactly the opposite. It has the largest tax increase in history to pay for the largest spending in history. This budget spends $100,000 per second, $6 million per minute, $350 million an hour every day for the entire year. It spends more than $23,000 per family, again, a record amount. Does the average American family feel they're getting their $23,000 worth from the Federal Government? It sort of reminds me of I think it was Will Rogers, who said, if we ever get all the government we pay for, look out.

Mr. Speaker, this reckless, out-of-control spending is not only unneeded; it has put us on a path toward economic disaster.

And I will be the first to admit Congress' spending problem wasn't created overnight and the blame does not lie in the lap of one single party. In terms of real fiscal year 2000 dollars, real dollars, Congress has quadrupled spending over my lifetime with both parties sharing in the blame. Our priorities have shifted dramatically from national defense and toward entitlement spending. It has become clear to me that here in Congress, the dials are always set to ``spend.'' It's spend and tax. That's always the program.

I think back to the amendments I offered last year during the appropriations process, nine amendments that would have saved $23 billion by simply asking Federal agencies to do what all kinds of families have had to do: spend the previous year's amount, hold the line on spending. These amendments were defeated on party-line votes, with Members of the majority claiming the sky would fall, the world would end if we could not increase spending at three or more times the rate of inflation.

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Mr. JORDAN of Ohio. The government managed to survive 3 months on
a continuing resolution doing just that, living on the previous year's budget. If we can do it for 3 months, we can do it for a long time and we can save the taxpayers a lot of money.

The American people are ready for change. They're tired of reckless spending that happens in the Halls of their Congress. They demand that we stand up and do the right thing. I would urge my colleagues to join me in rejecting this conference report in favor of a more conservative, fiscally responsible budget that respects taxpayers, business owners, and families across this country.

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