WEEKLY WASHINGTON UPDATE
January 27, 2006
WASHINGTON - Last month, for the first time in almost 10 years, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation to limit the growth of government and reduce the deficit by slowing the explosive growth of entitlement spending. But on December 21st, a minority of obstructionist Senators temporarily derailed efforts to sign this important bill into law.
The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, which I helped pass in the U.S. House, would make modest but meaningful reforms to wasteful government spending on entitlement programs.
According to the Brookings Institution, expected growth in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, along with projected increases in interest on the debt and defense, will absorb all of the government's currently projected revenue within just eight years, leaving nothing for any other program. If we do not enact meaningful reforms soon, we will put America on a collision course to actually double taxes on the next generation. This is unconscionable.
The nearly $40 billion in deficit reduction that House and Senate Republicans passed represents only one-third of one percent of the total $13.9 trillion in federal spending we will pay for over the next five years. But by slowing the growth of government spending by just a fraction of the federal budget, this bill sends a clear message to the American people that finally we will begin the process of limiting the rampant growth of government.
Clearly we can find more than enough savings in the budget by simply reforming the way that Washington does business, without raising taxes and without passing a legacy of debt to our children and grandchildren.
I plan to continue to fight for this bill when Congress takes it up again, because I believe we must do something now to protect the family budget from the explosive growth of the federal budget.
http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/tx05_hensarling/012706WW.html