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Conference Report On H.R. 2272, America Competes Act

Floor Speech

Date: Aug. 2, 2007
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Senior Citizens Entitlements and the Safety Net


CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 2272, AMERICA COMPETES ACT -- (House of Representatives - August 02, 2007)

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Mr. HENSARLING. I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I thank him for his leadership. I know of no other Member who is kinder or wiser than the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hall), and I appreciate that.

I also appreciate the earlier comments of the gentleman from Georgia who sits beside me. I want to assure, Mr. Speaker, all the people of Georgia that he is one of the great leaders of fiscal conservativism in this body, and his fellow fiscal conservatives understand if he is wrong once a year.

I somewhat reluctantly rise in opposition to this conference report. The goals contained within this conference report are very lofty goals. I know that many good things could be done with this money and that there are many good programs contained within it. But I have to ask a most inconvenient question, which I frequently find myself asking on this House floor: How are you going to pay for it?

Mr. Speaker, we continue to run deficit, which means now, by definition, when you are running a deficit, the first money is coming from raiding the Social Security Trust Fund. Is this program worth that?

I have Members coming to the floor to decry, well, we are borrowing money from China. Well, if you are floating T-bills and they are buying that debt, yes, then you are borrowing money from China. Is this worth borrowing money from China?

We know within the budget resolution passed by the Democrat majority, it contains the single largest tax increase in American history, which, over the course of 5 years, can amount to a $3,000 per American family tax burden. Is that where we are going to take the money from?

Mr. Speaker, there are already 10,000 Federal programs spread across 600 agencies; and since I have been here for almost 5 years, we are adding them at an alarming rate, and I see very few go away. How are we going to pay for it?

We are on the road right now to leave the next generation with a lower standard of living if we don't correct our spending ways. Let's get rid of some of the old programs before we add some new programs, no matter how worthy they may be.

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