Weekly Washington Update

WEEKLY WASHINGTON UPDATE

WASHINGTON - As I travel across the Fifth Congressional District, I hear many people say that Congress spending too much money and wasting their hard earned tax dollars on programs they just don't need. With a budget deficit of $318 billion and a national debt over $8 trillion, I could not agree more.

America is heading into the wind of a fiscal tsunami. According to the Brookings Institute, without major reforms the three major government entitlement programs, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, will absorb all of the government's projected revenue within eight years, leaving absolutely nothing else for any other program. Without meaningful reforms, we are on a collision course to actually double taxes on the next generation. This is unconscionable, but it is not too late if we act today.

As a member of the House Budget Committee, an American taxpayer and a father of two small children, I continue to be strongly concerned with the continued growth of the federal budget at the expense of the family budget. That is why I have introduced the most fiscally conservative budgets in Congress for the last two years, budgets to actually slow the rampant growth of the federal government.

Some liberal politicians refuse to reform runaway spending in Washington. Instead, they propose raising taxes on hardworking Americans. They would back taxes like the death tax and marriage penalty tax, and eliminate the child tax credit. This is just wrong.

I believe the best way to reduce the deficit is by continuing America's strong economic growth, making government limited and more accountable, and by reducing wasteful federal spending. I say no more Bridges to Nowhere and no more FEMA trailers rotting in Arkansas. Congress does not need to raise taxes on families, but we do need to balance the budget. We can find more than enough savings through reform, without raising taxes and without passing a legacy of debt to our children and grandchildren.

http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/tx05_hensarling/050806WWU.html