The Budget and Entitlement Reform
By Congressman Jeb Hensarling Posted in Congress | Congressional Contributors — Comments (14) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Today, President Bush submitted his FY2008 Budget to the Congress. Conservatives should rally behind the President's goal to balance the budget within 5 years without raising taxes. This budget should be used as a floor, not a ceiling, and serve as a starting point in the budget process. Congress once again will have the opportunity to restrain runaway spending, reform earmarks and restore the fiscal discipline that you expect in Washington. I will, once again, be vocal in my effort to achieve those goals.
Read on . . .
Your families depend on a safe and secure retirement. I hope that you have noticed that, within the last month, the heads of the GAO, the CBO, and the Chairman of the Federal Reserve all agreed that soaring entitlement costs are a massive problem that threatens all our future. Red State readers are well informed, and I know that you realize that we must tackle this growing crisis. I also know that many of you have had disagreements with the Administration on various issues, but President Bush should be commended for his commitment to entitlement reform.
This is not simply about Social Security, this is about retirement security. I recognize that we are entering a Presidential campaign, but working to strengthen entitlement programs cannot simply be a partisan issue. Now is the time for leadership. Conservatives have tried to bring this growing crisis for several years. It is something that I have spent a great deal of time talking about, debating, and learning since I was elected. Now is the time for the Democrat majority to show their commitment to families across America by joining us to thoughtfully reform Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Failure to do so threatens the fiscal security of each and every American. If Congress simply agreed to spend the same amount of time discussing entitlement reform as we do renaming post offices, it’d be a good start.
You deserve accountability in government. We can achieve this by injecting a little common sense to the budget process. We need to make sure that the Democrat majority offers a budget that includes significant entitlement reform and we need to hold them accountable if they don't. Democrat Lip service about fiscal responsibility will fall on deaf ears without addressing earmark reform. Remember, failure to act will guarantee that your taxes are raised on by at least 50 percent in the years ahead.
Hi Mark -
Thanks for responding. Congressman Paul Ryan is the Ranking Member of the Budget Committee, a committed conservative and a good friend.
I expect that you will see one or more alternatives that makes the tax cut permanent, reigns in federal spending while addressing entitlement reform.
I think may of us are looking forward to the Republicans strutting their stuff on this and proposing some actual cuts to the budget. I'll await Rep. Ryan's submission.
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Develop alternatives to existing policies and keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes the politically inevitable. Milton Friedman
This article notes that President Bush is recommending cutting some spending in some places.
The total? 12 billion. That's a little under 0.5% of this federal budget.
While I certainly support the President's efforts to make his tax cuts permanent, it's far past time to "hold the line" on spending, a phrase that has never meant more than retarding its rate of growth. Whatever the federal largesse does for us economically, the increasing dependence of a wide variety of private sector enterprises on public money is warping the market, not to mention our capitalist principles, all out of whack.
Bring me entitlement reform that takes money out of DC, actual reductions in spending and federal regulation, and more tax reform. Then ask me to get behind a budget plan.
When all else fails, simply revel in the absurdity of it all.
Congress has the opportunity every year to restrain runaway spending. It also has the same opportunity to cut spending. Unfortunately it has been a long time since it has done either.
...a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right...
---Thomas Paine---
I agree Herodotus. That is why Conservatives and those committed to fiscal responsibility rely on you and other Red State readers to really get the word out on the grassroots level.
If you look back at the Republican Study Committee Budget and my Family Budget Protection Act, both would work to reign in spending, prioritize government funding and rform the federal budgeting process.
Thank you for remaining true to your principals when your party leadership has not. But use here on the grassroots level need some help from those of you with access to the mass media. Despite our grassroots efforts (and a major electoral statement in November), the President has gone from $2 trillion budgets to $3 trillion budgets in what seems like the blink of an eye. Someone in the Republican party is going to have to put together a relevant coalition of Congressman to challenge the President in order to stop this, because the President and the party leadership don't seem to concerned about their grassroots base.
start cutting.
One of the biggest dissapointments to me over the last 12 years of GOP congressional control was that the GOP essentially turned into democrats, and kept on spending.
I do hope the tax cuts are made permanent, but even more I would like to see more done to reduce the amount being spent.
If there was an overwhelming public demand that spending be cut, then just maybe it would happen. In the absence of such a demand spending will keep increasing. The public seems to like it, and three quarters of Congress likes doing it. Spending increases because there is no good political reason why it should not.
The only way around this is to either (a) change the opinions of the majority of the American people or (b) change the opinions of the people who make up the political class. (b) is not going to happen and (a) will take time and a great deal of effort.
Although I think you are only half right.
I think if you in general polled the public, they would say they were for spending cuts, they just want to cut the things they don't like while keeping or increasing the things they like.
I think at some point the American people got overly addicted to the federal government spending-and in general it seems that once something gets a line on the budget it isn't ever going to go away.
Although, at the very least I would love to see program effectivess evaluated, and if it isn't successful cut from the budget. I don't think the solution to failing program is sinking more oney into them-the reality is that a good program will work even on a thin budget, but a crappy program is likely to stay that way, it will just get more expensive and more inefficient.
I think if you in general polled the public, they would say they were for spending cuts, they just want to cut the things they don't like while keeping or increasing the things they like.
Take a poll asking if people favor cutting government and the majority will say yes. Propose cutting any significant program and the public will object. Propose cutting smaller programs and the public may not object, but some wealthy people will, and their views carry disproportionate weight.
at the very least I would love to see program effectivess evaluated, and if it isn't successful cut from the budget.
Most programs are very effective. You are probably using "effective" to mean "for the good of the public". But most programs are explicitly aimed at benefiting a narrow sector, so they actually work as designed.
I want a ceiling on spending not a floor.
We are essentially saying the same Cicero. What I was saying is that the President's Budget represents a floor for us on fiscal responsibility and entitlement reform - meaning that we must do more on each.
We appreciate it, whether we agree or disagree.
Thank you.
"During my lifetime, all our problems have come from mainland Europe, and all the solutions from the English-speaking nations across the world." - Thatcher
Will there be a Republican alternative that actually cuts the budget?
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Develop alternatives to existing policies and keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes the politically inevitable. Milton Friedman