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Feingold
Discusses "PAYGO" Effort To Restore Fiscal Responsibility
At Local Listening Sessions
Bipartisan Pay-As-You-Go Would Reinstate Spending
Rules
That Helped Balance the Federal Budget
March 22, 2005
Arena, WI - U.S. Senator Russ Feingold discussed his effort
to restore fiscal discipline by reinstituting "PAYGO" or Pay-As-You-Go
rules that worked to balance the budget during the 1990's. Feingold
and Senator Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) introduced PAYGO as an amendment to
the 2006 budget resolution last week. However, the final vote in the
Senate ended in a tie, meaning that the amendment did not pass. Feingold
and Chafee will continue their effort later this year by introducing
PAYGO as a stand-alone bill.
"PAYGO simply makes us find ways to pay for the things we want,
rather than pushing the costs of the government's fiscal recklessness
onto the shoulders of our children and grandchildren," Feingold
said. "During the 1990s, we balanced the budget under the PAYGO
rule and it only makes sense, especially as we face mounting debt, to
go back to the system that worked for us before."
The Feingold-Chafee effort would force Congress to find offsets to pay
for new tax cuts or new spending on entitlement programs. If offsets
for spending or tax cuts were not included, proposals would be subject
to a budget point of order. In the Senate, that would mean such proposals
would need a 60-vote majority for them to pass. The PAYGO amendment
succeeded in the Senate last Congress. Congressional leaders' decision
not to include the spending rule in the final version of the proposed
budget resulted in no budget being passed last year.
"The congressional leadership and the White House have become openly
hostile to responsible tax cuts that are paid for, and openly hostile
to balancing the budget," Feingold said. "My amendment didn't
ask Congress to do anything more than most American families do every
day-- balance the checkbook, pay the bills and live within their means.
It's a sad moment when the Congress says to the American people, 'the
values that guide your kitchen table discussions aren't good enough
for us.' I look forward to working with Senator Chafee, and the bipartisan
coalition we have put together, toward instituting tough budget rules
later this year."
Feingold’s 11th Listening Session of 2005, and 875th since he
was first elected took place in at the American Legion Hall in Juneau
County. He held his 12th session of 2005 and 876th since he was first
elected, at the Strongs Prairie Town Hall in Adams County. He held his
13th Listening Session of the year, and 877th since 1993, at the Greenwood
Fire Hall in Clark County. This is Feingold’s 13th year of holding
these open Listening Sessions in every Wisconsin county, every year.
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