The Spending Problem
House Chamber, Washington D.C.
March 20, 2013
Mr. Chairman:
Our fiscal problem can be summed up in just three numbers: 39, 37 and 64. 39 percent is the combined increase of inflation and population over the past ten years. 37 percent is the increase in revenues.
The third number is killing us: 64 percent is the increase in spending – nearly twice the rate of inflation and population growth.
This has never been a revenue problem – it has always been a spending problem.
Yet, characteristic of other Democratic budgets, the Senate further accelerates spending while trying to chase it with a trillion dollars of new taxes.
And despite a trillion dollars of new taxes they still can’t ever balance their budget. There’s a reason. It’s because this is a spending problem and dogmatically trying to address it on the revenue side will simply drive more and more spending until we become Greece. Or Detroit.
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Remarks delivered March 20th, 2013 in opposition to adoption of Senate Budget.
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