Deficit Reduction Act of 2005
DEFICIT REDUCTION ACT OF 2005 -- (House of Representatives - November 17, 2005)
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Mr. NUSSLE. Mr. Speaker, several months ago, we approved the fiscal year 2006 budget resolution. In that budget, the Republicans and Congress laid out our plan, which is based on our fundamental principles to promote economic growth, create jobs, and control government spending. It is part of an overall plan.
Today we stand at what is a critical juncture in implementing that plan and making it a reality. The Deficit Reduction Act starts the process of adopting the real policies and the real reforms that make these massive entitlement programs more effective, more efficient, and less costly.
I expect, as we have already seen, that this is going to be a very vigorous and even sometimes contentious debate. I welcome that. I think we should all welcome that. I think that is what this Chamber is really for. It is what our constituents sent us here to do, to set the priorities, to come up with a solid plan, to do the real work, even if it is difficult, even if it is a challenge, even if you have to fight for it, even if you have to make a debate and a speech and everything else in order to get it done. The point is, we have got to work on this plan and see it through.
This is far from the first day that we have been on the floor or worked in committees in order to get this done. Mr. Speaker, for the past three budget years, we have been working on this plan to get the economy going, to create jobs, to control spending, and to actually reduce the deficit. I would like to review our plan.
First, Republicans committed to reduce the total discretionary spending, making the first actual reduction in the annual spending that happens because we vote on it here in Congress. That is the discretionary spending. It is the first time we have made an actual reduction in this nondiscretionary spending, this discretionary spending part of the budget. The first time we have done that since the 1980s.
Second, the Republicans committed to no tax increases. More importantly, we did not want an automatic tax increase happening. In fact, if Congress does not act this year, if we fail to pass the tax reconciliation, taxes automatically go up, no vote. They just go up.
Third, we decided that we wanted to tackle these important mandatory programs. For the past 3 years, we have stuck to our plan, and we have produced results. Let me just show you this chart. Mr. Speaker, when we started this process, we had a $521 billion deficit that was staring us in the face, caused by what happened on September 11, 2001, the war in Afghanistan, the war in Iraq, the stock market dot-com bubble bursting, the emergency spending we had to deal with in order to deal with so many broken lives, so many challenges across the country in the wake of the terrorist attack.
Homeland Security spending skyrocketed; and interestingly enough, the same opposition party who comes to the floor tonight decrying spending, decrying deficits voted for most of that spending that got us to the $521 billion worth of deficit. As part of implementing this plan, we reduced that deficit from $521 billion to $427 billion in the first year; $90-some billion in 1 year alone the deficit came down implementing that plan.
Second year, that we just closed the books on, actual reduction from $521 billion to $427 billion to $319 billion. I will suggest to you that $319 billion is not where we want to be. We are heading in the right direction. We are heading in the right direction because we have a plan to grow the economy, to control spending, to create jobs, and create taxpayers. As a result of that, revenues have come in. The strong sustained growth in our economy has driven Federal tax receipts up over 15 percent over last year, even with tax reduction.
Let me repeat that. I understand all the rhetoric on the floor here tonight, but we reduced taxes. The economy expanded. More money came into Washington. That is a fact, incontrovertible fact. No one can come to the floor tonight and tell you any differently. Revenues have increased as a result of strong economic growth.
The Democrats act like this is the government's money that we are talking about here tonight, that all of these, whether it is tax reductions or spending or whatever it is, that this is the government's money. This is not the government's money.
Mr. Speaker, this is the hard-working taxpayers' money. They do the working, they do the sweating, they do the toiling, they are the ones that open small businesses and farms. They are the ones that employ Americans. They are the ones that do not wait for the government to come to bail them out. If they have a tough year, they are the folks who do all the hard work and pay the taxes. It is their money that we are talking about here tonight. That surge of revenue, that surge of money coming from those taxpayers was the largest factor in this dramatic reduction of the deficit, nearly $100 billion this year, $200 billion over the last 2 years.
Even combined, growing the economy and limiting just that 30 percent of our spending is not going to be enough. It is not going to be enough to get where we need to be. The set of challenges still faces us.
We added a third prong to this important deficit reduction. We committed for the first time in nearly a decade to reform and find savings in the largest portion of our Federal spending. That is what we are here to do tonight. It is part of that overall plan.
This spending is what we call mandatory, our automatic pilot-kind of spending. It is over now 50 percent of the entire amount of money that is spent by the Federal Government; and it is without boundaries, it is without reform, and it is pretty much without any kind of review whatsoever. In fact, Congress does not even have to vote on these increases. Let me say that again so you understand. If we do nothing tonight, spending automatically increases, and we have got to go to the taxpayers to get more money. We have got to go to those hard-working Americans to get more money from them in order to run the government.
Automatically, if we do nothing tonight, just like if we do nothing on taxes, they will automatically increase. That is the fantasy that we are dealing with tonight. That is the fantasy of our congressional budget process unfortunately, is things automatically occur if you do not do the hard work of reforming and reducing our spending and our taxes. Compounding the problem is that unchecked spending is growing faster than our economy, faster than inflation, and far beyond our means to sustain it whatsoever. The money is usually just feeding a gigantic bureaucracy. Really, this is a bureaucracy that is failing most of the people it is intended to help.
I asked eight of our very able chairmen and their committees to go to work. I asked them to make some reforms. Over the last 6 months, hundreds of ideas were discussed. Hearings were held. We listened to our constituents, to scholars, to experts, to people who understand the intricacies of these programs. We partnered with the States. We talked to our Governors. All of the committees have met or exceeded the original savings targets with reforms, bringing the total of savings that we will consider here tonight to $50 billion over 5 years.
Really, this is not about saving money. This is an effort to start reforming our largest Federal programs and ensure that they can continue to serve their missions, to serve the people and help the ones who are most in need. Most of these programs desperately need reform. In many cases, they are operating on decades-old models.
Take Medicaid as an example. We are talking about Medicaid tonight as just one of the myriad programs, invented in 1965 before the personal computer, before we walked on the Moon. Yes, it is a program we all support; but, yes, it is a program in need of dramatic reform in order to meet the needs of our changing society and Nation.
Most of these programs desperately need this reform. They are operating on these models, and we need to make this change. This process that we call reconciliation is just one of the few tools that we have at our disposal in order to make sure that we can go through this process.
I want to give you a sampling of the reforms that are in this package. We expand and build upon the welfare reform that was so successful from 1996. We reformed Medicaid, just as the Governors have asked us to give the States the flexibility in those 50 laboratories to deliver a better-quality service to the people who need them.
We reformed food stamps, a program that helped so many in need, but is in so much need of reform. We enhanced pension security, just at a time when the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation has come out telling us we need these reforms, otherwise people's pensions are a desperate concern.
Boosting the low-income heating assistance, at a time we know the winter is going to be challenging and eliminating the excessive student loan overhead costs.
People are going to come here tonight to protect the bureaucracy of these programs. We want to make sure that these programs are helping those in need. These are just a good start. But these reforms and savings are not going to solve the long-term spending problem in a single stroke. But if you listen to the debate, it will sound tonight like we are eliminating half the Federal Government. You will hear debate tonight that will make it sound like we have eliminated these programs.
In fact, what we are talking about here is the total amount of this bill. If you take all of it together, the total savings amounts to less than one-half of 1 percent over the next 5 years. These programs will grow. What we are saying is we just need to slow them down a little bit and instill some reforms so that they can work better. Even though our opponents will claim that these are cuts, spending will continue to grow under each of these programs faster, even, than inflation.
Under our plan, Medicaid is an example. We will continue to grow at 7.5 percent instead of what it is currently growing at, which all of our Governors came to Washington to say was an unsustainable rate at 7.7 percent. That is not a cut. Only in Washington would that be called a cut.
I know my friends on the other side will disagree with our plan to reform our government programs and achieve these savings for American taxpayers. That is fair. We can have that debate tonight. But I ask you, through the Speaker, where is your plan?
You were given an opportunity to present a plan tonight. You will come to the floor tonight and tell us how important these programs are and how they are already failing Americans, but you have not one scintilla of an idea of how to make sure that these programs can continue.
What is your plan to reform these important programs? What are your innovative ideas, or is it simply increase taxes on hard-working Americans? Is it simply more politics as usual? Is it more press releases and attack ads? I have no doubt that is what it is going to be.
I hope Democrats do not plan to come and waste our time tonight, telling us yet again that you do not agree with us. I mean, gee, that is really news. Mr. Speaker, in fact, boy, look at the balcony where all the reporters usually sit. It is really news that you do not support our plan. It is really news that you disagree with the Republicans. It is really news that Republicans and Democrats are fighting. That is not news at all.
What would be news is if you came forward with an alternative. That would be news. If you came with a plan, that would actually be a surprise. It is not going to happen tonight.
You were allowed to present a plan. I am proud to present our plan to reform these very important government programs that achieve savings for hard-working American people who pay the taxes around here. It is part of our successful ongoing effort during one of the most challenging times in our history to promote personal responsibility, to reform government bureaucracy, the same bureaucracy that they will defend tonight is the same bureaucracy that did not get the job done down in the gulf. They decry the bureaucracy on the one hand, and yet they try and protect it on the other.
This eliminates some of the waste, fraud and abuse within our system. And it grows our economy to create jobs and opportunities for the American people. We have a plan to reduce the deficit and to govern America.
Mr. Speaker, I ask you, where is their plan? Where is your agenda for America, to govern and to reduce your deficit and get us back on path?
I ask that we support the only plan and the best plan and that is the plan we propose tonight.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
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