Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2016

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. ROKITA. I thank the chairman for his hard work. I thank all of my Budget Committee colleagues for their hard work.

Mr. Chairman, it has been hard work--it continues to be--to have this honest conversation with the American people.

The whole goal here is to allow the opportunity for Americans to build better lives for themselves and their families, not for the Federal Government to attempt to provide that better life because, Mr. Chairman, after 50 years of the War on Poverty, for example, we know that the Federal Government can't do the job.

There is a lot of rhetoric out there. Certainly, Mr. Chairman, for the committee, it is not positive and not right either. It is just plain wrong.

We talk about hard work. You know what is hard work? Getting the competing priorities and a continuing usurpation of our limited moneys in terms of our mandatory spending and getting a budget to balance in 10 years. Yet again, this Budget Committee and this House of Representatives has a plan to do it and, unlike you have heard, to do it honestly.

What is not hard work, quite frankly, Mr. Chairman, what is easier to do is to never balance, and this chart shows that. The President's budget never balances, ever.

Of course, Mr. Chairman, you know that you can't start paying down the $18 trillion of debt that we have with another $100 trillion on the way until you first count the balance. We do that in a responsible, honest way. We don't try to do it in a year. We do it in a responsible, logical 10-year window.

The Federal budget is very big. It is like an aircraft carrier, Mr. Chairman. You have got to turn it, and you have got to turn it decisively, but it doesn't turn on a dime. And that is what we show here. That is what we do here. Again, it is hard work.

It is also hard work, as I mentioned earlier, because, as time goes on, more and more of our over $3 trillion worth of spending per year is spent on programs that are eventually going to bankrupt us if we don't reform them. If we don't strengthen them and save them for future generations, no one will be able to take advantage of Medicaid, of Medicare, of Social Security.

And I know we all put money into those programs--especially Medicare and Social Security--but on average, we only put about 30 percent into them, Medicare, for example. And that 70 percent delta goes on the backs of our children and grandchildren, a lot of whom haven't yet been born. Talk about taxation without representation.

Our budget solves this problem. We have the ability, and we on the committee have had the honesty to have this direct, forthright conversation with the American people, frankly, now for 5 years. The worst thing we could have done is to turn tail and run and not have this honest conversation.

The CHAIR. The time of the gentleman has expired.

Mr. TOM PRICE of Georgia. I yield the gentleman an additional 1 minute.

Mr. ROKITA. But we did it 5 years ago when the new crew came in. We continue to do it. And I am encouraged, Mr. Chairman. I think the American people see the light. They see that unless we correct and reform this mandatory overspending, no one can be helped. We can't have Americans building better lives for themselves and their families. We are going to have them more dependent on the Federal Government, and in doing so, more and more people will be hurt.

Slush fund, no. A very important fund to fight the global war on terror, to keep our troops safe and effective. That is an important fund. I wouldn't call that a slush fund. And I wouldn't call dependency on broken programs good or positive either.

Republicans on the Budget Committee, Republicans in this Congress, I hope all of us eventually will have the courage and ability to not only have this conversation with the American people but to start putting this conversation into direct action.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source