Yesterday, Congressman Tom Price (GA-06), a member of the Committee on Education and Labor, offered an amendment at the mark-up of H.R. 5504, the Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act. As written, this legislation would dramatically expand the scope and number of federal programs without paying for nearly $8 billion of additional spending. The Price amendment would reduce this deficit by repealing a separate, $2.5 billion program that gutted the bipartisan welfare reforms of the 1990s. Democrats opposed this common sense effort to save taxpayers billions of dollars and defeated the amendment.

“Good nutrition is not the only thing we should seek for our children,” said Congressman Price. “Providing our children a healthy future also means protecting them from the crushing burden of debt created by Washington’s deficit addiction. At more than $13 trillion, the national debt is quickly becoming a national emergency thanks in part to a provision in the Democrats’ failed stimulus package that gutted the bipartisan welfare reforms of the 1990s. This supposedly ‘temporary’ program has no requirement that beneficiaries make an effort to get off taxpayer assistance, and some of this money has actually been spent on items like iPods and flat screen TVs. Washington needs to go on a diet and start paying for what it spends. Repealing this wasteful program would be a good place to start.”

NOTE: Congressman Price’s amendment mirrors the Welfare Reform Restoration Act (H.R. 1277) – legislation Price introduced back in March 2009. Recently, this legislation was chosen by the American people through the House Republican’s popular YouCut program to be voted on by the full House of Representatives. Democrats similarly opposed this opportunity to make a meaningful reduction in debt while restoring bipartisan welfare reforms.