In my first few weeks as a new member of the House Budget Committee, I have already learned some important lessons.
The first lesson I learned was this: the fiscal mess we are in is much worse than the American people have been led to believe.
During a six-year period the Administration and the Congressional leadership turned a budget surplus into a record-high debt. Now it is up to Congress to put the books back in order. This will mean making sometimes painful choices, but it must be done if we are to spare our children and grandchildren from inheriting a crushing debt.
Unfortunately, the Administration chose to continue the fiscal mismanagement with its budget proposal for fiscal year 2008. The Administration claims that by following its blueprint the budget will be balanced by 2012, but it uses fuzzy math and unrealistic economic predictions to reach this conclusion.
The Administration’s budget proposal assumes an unrealistic level of incoming revenues. I would like to think that economic growth will remain robust and tax receipts will continue to pour in. However, as we hope for the best, it is our responsibility to plan for the worst. Any carpenter can tell you it’s best to fix the roof while the sun’s still shining.
In addition to failing to balance the books, the Administration’s budget is filled with misplaced priorities. It makes drastic cuts to important domestic priorities like Medicare and Medicaid, children’s health, veterans, first responders, education and the environment.
As a former North Carolina small businessman, I learned long ago to be tight with a buck, and I have always worked to be a watchful steward of the taxpayers’ money. But I strongly believe we will cease to be a great country if we continue to neglect the many unmet needs our citizens have for critical services only the federal government can provide.
The Administration’s budget request cuts education funding by $1.5 billion and eliminates 44 education initiatives entirely. A society that cuts education is like a farmer who eats his seed corn; neither one is going to have much of a future. We must invest in the future, and I will work to reverse these misguided budget cuts.
Finally, I am very concerned about the record-high national debt and the interest on that debt. Interest is the fastest growing segment of the federal budget. Nearly all the new debt is held by foreign creditors, and many of them in countries such as China, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Libya.
When I questioned Treasury Secretary Paulson in a Budget Committee hearing about our foreign-held debt, he responded by stating that it is not near the top of the things that worry him. Let me state that it is near the top of the list of things that worry me, and I think it should be near the top of the list of the items Congress aims to tackle.
Anyone who has ever gotten behind on a credit card account knows that paying interest, although necessary, gets you nothing. It is time for this Congress to reverse the Administration’s record of fiscal mismanagement, pay off the national debt and lift that burden from our children and grandchildren.
It will take bipartisan cooperation and leadership to reverse the reckless policies that have gotten us into this budget mess. I am willing to get to work to help provide that leadership, and I am hopeful we can obtain bipartisan cooperation in doing so. The American people deserve no less.