Representing North Carolina’s Ninth District                                                                      

Congress Must Get Spending Under Control

Government spending is out of control.  It is increasing faster than inflation and at a near record-breaking pace.  Congress has to stop spending your tax dollars so fast.  I am working hard in Washington to make sure Congress is putting a lid on wasteful spending.

When I came to Congress in 1995, federal spending was out of control.  It took two years but in 1997 we passed the Balanced Budget Act.  For the first time in decades we were taking responsible steps to cut unnecessary spending, and make the government leaner and more efficient.

The Balanced Budget Act was one of my proudest accomplishments.  However, in the years that followed, Congress began to regain its old spending habits.  If we had just kept with our ’97 Budget agreement we could have paid for the downturn in the economy due to the recession, the bursting stock market bubble, the corporate scandals and 9-11; all the tax cuts, and the War on Terror with deficits that would be less than half of what we have now, and we’d be on track to balance the budget again.
 
Recently, President Bush released his 2005 budget which showed restraint in several areas, but the total spending numbers are still too high.  Hard working Americans have to watch their spending and so should the government.   

As chair the Republican Study Committee (RSC), a group of 96 conservative Republicans in the House, I am working to hold the President and congressional leadership accountable to curb federal spending by advocating a 1% reduction in 2004 discretionary spending levels.  Congress must cut spending across the board on all programs; not just control their growth.  We must also offset any new spending by making reductions in other programs.  To accomplish this goal, Congress must first change the way it handles the budget process… a process that is purposefully confusing, thereby hiding from the public the true depth of the spending problem.

Think of government spending this way:  An overweight man wants to lose weight.  He switches from Coke to Diet Coke – but then he doubles his daily intake of chocolate cake.  Clearly, he will not lose weight.  Yet this scenario is essentially what many in Washington have proposed.  Slowing the growth of non-defense, non-homeland security spending, but significantly increasing the rest of the federal budget.  Clearly, this will not control federal spending.

Just as the solution for the overweight man is not to buy bigger clothes, the solution to the federal spending problem is not to raise taxes and continue to increase spending.  The real solution is eliminating wasteful non-functioning programs, and cutting overall government spending. 

I have worked with both conservatives and moderates in the House on reducing spending.  Together, we have introduced a plan of action that, if adopted, would bring more accountability to the budget process.  The plan is called “12 Consensus Principles to Reform the Budget Process and Limit Federal Spending.” A full list of the 12 principles can be viewed on my website at www.myrick.house.gov  These principles will allow us to keep spending in check.  This, along with a 1% cut in federal discretionary spending, is our best chance to restore fiscal sanity to the Congressional budget process and to balance the budget again.

These principles are based on the premise that the family budget must be protected from the federal budget.  When Congress begins to spend more tax dollars than it receives, individuals and families begin to feel the burden- not the government.  Americans deserve to have a Congress that looks at the federal budget like normal Americans look at their household budget. 

I am hopeful that 2004 will be the year we can reform the budget process and begin to regain control of federal spending.  We can no longer spend what we do not have.  Our children and grandchildren will have to pay it off.  That’s irresponsible.  We must put a lid on spending now. 

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