May 22, 2009
Most parents can relate to the saying that if you give an inch, they’ll take a mile. It seems second nature for kids to test the rules, whether they’re toddlers or teenagers. Without limits and consequences, things evolve into chaos pretty quickly.
In a lot of ways, the same thing can be said for accountability and oversight of the federal government. If checks and balances fall by the wayside, it becomes all too easy to cheat Uncle Sam. The federal bureaucracy includes 15 executive departments, as well as hundreds of agencies and commissions, from the Social Security Administration to the Federal Trade Commission. Including members of the Armed Services, taxpayers employ 4 million people who work for the federal government.
So far this year, I’ve visited 59 of Iowa’s 99 counties, holding town meetings, visiting schools, touring businesses, talking with workers, and speaking to civic groups. The number one issue that came up over and over again was the borrow-and-spend mentality in Washington.
In just six months, Washington has dispatched trillions of tax dollars for bailing out the banks, resuscitating car companies and stimulating the economy in an unprecedented federal spending spree.
Taxpayers deserve a full accounting of how their hard-earned money is spent, and I worked earlier this year to secure legislation to strengthen oversight authority of the bailout dollars by the independent auditing arm of Congress known as the Government Accountability Office. I also won passage of and the President’s signature on a bipartisan bill aimed at fighting fraud. The bill beefs up the ability of federal law enforcement to protect tax dollars on the line in the economic recovery effort, including financial, securities, and mortgage frauds. It’s also the biggest update to the False Claims Act since 1986, when I first modified the law to fight fraud by government contractors. Tax dollars finance the federal government to provide services that benefit the public good. It doesn’t do any good if the money is lost to waste, fraud and abuse.
This summer Congress will hammer out the details of a $3.4 trillion federal budget. Roughly 60 percent of the budget is mandatory spending, such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Lawmakers will debate the 40 percent in so-called discretionary spending that includes funding for renewable energy, health care research, food safety, border security, college loans, the courts and more.
The President has pledged to cut the federal deficit in half within five years and pitched his first budget as a new era of responsibility. So far, taxpayers have witnessed a new era of unprecedented federal spending. And the promise for a deficit cut in half by 2013 is hollow, considering this year’s budget deficit grew to $1.8 trillion, and that’s quadruple last year’s deficit. The President’s budget will double the publicly held debt in 5 years and triple it in 10.
Let’s not lose sight of who is picking up the tab for runaway deficits that are projected to climb more than $9 trillion over the next decade. Today’s mortgage crisis could seem like a walk in the park if Washington stays on this path. Unsustainable deficits would lead to interest payments on the national debt that eat up an excessive share of the federal budget.
That’s why I work in the U.S. Senate to set spending limits, strengthen accountability and improve transparency before Washington’s appetite for reckless spending puts the country at risk of foreclosing on the futures of our children and grandchildren.
May 22, 2009
Most parents can relate to the saying that if you give an inch, they’ll take a mile. It seems second nature for kids to test the rules, whether they’re toddlers or teenagers. Without limits and consequences, things evolve into chaos pretty quickly.
In a lot of ways, the same thing can be said for accountability and oversight of the federal government. If checks and balances fall by the wayside, it becomes all too easy to cheat Uncle Sam. The federal bureaucracy includes 15 executive departments, as well as hundreds of agencies and commissions, from the Social Security Administration to the Federal Trade Commission. Including members of the Armed Services, taxpayers employ 4 million people who work for the federal government.
So far this year, I’ve visited 59 of Iowa’s 99 counties, holding town meetings, visiting schools, touring businesses, talking with workers, and speaking to civic groups. The number one issue that came up over and over again was the borrow-and-spend mentality in Washington.
In just six months, Washington has dispatched trillions of tax dollars for bailing out the banks, resuscitating car companies and stimulating the economy in an unprecedented federal spending spree.
Taxpayers deserve a full accounting of how their hard-earned money is spent, and I worked earlier this year to secure legislation to strengthen oversight authority of the bailout dollars by the independent auditing arm of Congress known as the Government Accountability Office. I also won passage of and the President’s signature on a bipartisan bill aimed at fighting fraud. The bill beefs up the ability of federal law enforcement to protect tax dollars on the line in the economic recovery effort, including financial, securities, and mortgage frauds. It’s also the biggest update to the False Claims Act since 1986, when I first modified the law to fight fraud by government contractors. Tax dollars finance the federal government to provide services that benefit the public good. It doesn’t do any good if the money is lost to waste, fraud and abuse.
This summer Congress will hammer out the details of a $3.4 trillion federal budget. Roughly 60 percent of the budget is mandatory spending, such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Lawmakers will debate the 40 percent in so-called discretionary spending that includes funding for renewable energy, health care research, food safety, border security, college loans, the courts and more.
The President has pledged to cut the federal deficit in half within five years and pitched his first budget as a new era of responsibility. So far, taxpayers have witnessed a new era of unprecedented federal spending. And the promise for a deficit cut in half by 2013 is hollow, considering this year’s budget deficit grew to $1.8 trillion, and that’s quadruple last year’s deficit. The President’s budget will double the publicly held debt in 5 years and triple it in 10.
Let’s not lose sight of who is picking up the tab for runaway deficits that are projected to climb more than $9 trillion over the next decade. Today’s mortgage crisis could seem like a walk in the park if Washington stays on this path. Unsustainable deficits would lead to interest payments on the national debt that eat up an excessive share of the federal budget.
That’s why I work in the U.S. Senate to set spending limits, strengthen accountability and improve transparency before Washington’s appetite for reckless spending puts the country at risk of foreclosing on the futures of our children and grandchildren.