The Federal Budget

THE FEDERAL BUDGET -- (House of Representatives - October 25, 2005)

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Mr. CHOCOLA. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, for his leadership on these matters and for bringing us together here tonight to discuss these important issues.

Madam Speaker, I think we can probably find bipartisan agreement here tonight that the deficit is too big. Where we probably part ways is what do we do about it?

I think it is important when we discuss what do we do about it to recognize the fact that the result of the deficit comes from one of two things: Either we spend too much, or we tax too little. I have to say that the people of the Second District of Indiana do not feel like they are taxed too little, and I do not think they are really any different from the people of every congressional district around this country.

Unfortunately, too many times here in Washington we use as the only measurement of success how much we spend, not how well we spend. But I think it is clear to say that the Federal Government spends enough money. What we did do too little of is prioritize the spending and root out waste, fraud and abuse.

Madam Speaker, tonight we have heard that we really cannot cut spending, it would just be an onerous thing to do. There is no way we can find savings or root out waste, fraud and abuse. We have also heard a little bit about the reconciliation process, where we are trying to find savings over future government growth. So the fact of the matter is, when it comes to reconciliation, we are not talking about cuts at all; we are simply talking about slowing down the future growth of government by a very small amount.

As an example, we can find $100 billion in savings over the next 5 years by simply slowing the growth of government by 3/10 of 1 percent. But, still, even with that marginal savings, we hear that there is just no way that we can even slow the growth of government. It would be simply impossible to do.

Let us look at a few examples, Madam Speaker, on where we might find that money. As an example, as reported by the Social Security Administration inspector general in 2002, more than $31 million in Social Security payments had been made to dead people. Another example, in 2003, the food stamp program spent $1.1 billion in overpayments to program beneficiaries. Another example is that Medicare overpayments in 2001, get this, totaled $12.1 billion. Let me repeat that, Madam Speaker: Medicare overpayments totaled $12.1 billion in 2001.

The Federal Government cannot account for $17.3 billion spent in 2001. They simply do not know where the money went. That does not include the $12.1 billion in Medicare I just mentioned, because we know where that money went, to overpayments. But there is another $17.3 billion that the Federal Government simply does not know where it went, and that leads the GAO, the Government Accountability Office, to refuse to certify the government's own accounting books because the bookkeeping is so poor.

Madam Speaker, no business could operate under those management practices; no family could operate under those management practices. In fact, if the Federal Government was a publicly traded company, there would be criminal charges brought for those management practices.

Those that say we cannot find savings and slow down the future growth of government simply do not want to do the hard work of management and being good stewards of taxpayer dollars. The American people understand that spending money is easy and managing money is hard.

I certainly believe that I was elected, and every Member of this body was elected, to do the hard things, to find a way to manage money better, to get a good return for taxpayer investment, and not fall back on the easy thing of saying if we slow the growth of government, we are balancing the budget on the backs of those people that can least afford it.

Madam Speaker, I ask, what is compassionate about wasting $12.1 billion in Medicare? That is money that is not going to any beneficiaries, it is not providing health care to any senior. It is simply mismanagement and wasted money.

Madam Speaker, I want to yield back to the gentleman from Texas, and I want to thank him again for his leadership on this issue. I certainly encourage all of my colleagues to do the hard work we are elected to do by providing better fiscal responsibility, better stewardship and better management on behalf of the people of this country.

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Mr. CHOCOLA. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding again. Just very quickly, I appreciate the facts that the gentleman is pointing out.

Let me draw the gentleman's attention to a couple other facts. The Wall Street Journal last week had a very important editorial when they pointed out the fact that during the period of 2001 to 2005, inflation on a cumulative basis was 12 percent. The Federal spending in transportation increased 24 percent; employment benefits, 26 percent; general government spending, 32 percent; income security programs, 39 percent; health spending, 42 percent; community development, 71 percent; housing and commerce, 86 percent; international affairs, 94 percent; education, 99 percent. Remember, inflation over that period of time was 12 percent.

Before being elected to Congress, I ran a business. Every year we would go through a budget process. Every year all the general managers would come into my office, and we would talk about the next year's budget. In almost every case we would find ways to save over the last year in our spending budget.

I will have to say, Madam Speaker, if I would have that meeting with general managers, and I would ask them to find 1/2 of 1 percent savings next year, they would frankly laugh in my face. They would be very relieved, because they would have expected to hear 10 percent.

Every American business and family has found ways to find substantial savings in their budget when they are faced with budget challenges. The Federal Government should be no different. There is no reason that we cannot find these savings, that we cannot act more responsibly on behalf of the American people and provide a good return and sound investment for the American taxpayer. Saying we cannot do it is simply shirking our responsibilities and not wanting to do the hard work of management. We are elected to do oversight and be good stewards of the taxpayer dollars.

Again, I thank the gentleman for his leadership.

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