Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2008

Floor Speech

FINANCIAL SERVICES AND GENERAL GOVERNMENT APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2008 -- (House of Representatives - June 28, 2007)

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Mrs. MUSGRAVE. Mr. Chairman, my amendment to the Financial Services appropriations bill today would make a cut of just one-half of 1 percent in the overall funding of the bill.

Again, when I walk around the Halls of Congress, and I see signs on easels by Blue Dog Democrat doors and other individuals, it is pointed out to anyone that walks by that our national debt now is at $8.8 trillion.

I offer this amendment in the tradition of our former colleague, Joel Hefley from Colorado, who faithfully came to the floor on these appropriations bills and offered a 1 percent cut, just a 1 percent cut in our spending.

Government does not have a revenue problem. What we have is a spending problem.

You know, when I listen to my colleagues, my friends on the other side of the aisle, and heard the esteemed chairman of the Appropriations Committee talk, he said something, if we cut our spending, we would have, I believe his term was, exactly this, runaway rugged individualism.

You know, as we approach the 4th of July and this holiday that's coming up, the celebration of the Declaration of Independence, I think about what has made this country great. I think one of the main things that has made this country great is rugged individualism.

What you have here is two opinions, two views of what makes this country great, and what the role of government should be.

I don't think there are many Americans, when they really think about it, wanting the government to advise them on how to buy a car and how to make decisions for themselves. I think Americans can take care of these things themselves. But will we have a bill like this when we have a 9.8 percent increase in spending over last year's amount? That's $1.9 billion.

I wonder if the taxpayers think that they need to spend money in these kinds of ways. One of the things that caught my eye was a $550 million increase in funding for the IRS. That's a 5 percent increase over last year's budget figure. There's not too many of us that would want to go home and brag about that.

So I think that we need to tighten our belt. I think we need to think about the proper role of government, what government should really do, strong national defense, our roads and our infrastructure, and wonder how government got involved in all of this and why, in this year's appropriations bill, we have to increase spending by $1.9 billion.

My amendment would humbly take it from a 9.8 percent increase in spending to 9.3 percent.

Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

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