Providing for Consideration of H.R. 2997, Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010
PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 2997, AGRICULTURE, RURAL DEVELOPMENT, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2010 -- (House of Representatives - July 08, 2009)
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Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, we have heard of the problems with the rule, but that's not the thing that really bothers me. What bothers me is how much money we're spending.
Since last October, this is what we've spent: $700 billion for TARP; $70.3 billion for CHIP; $1.16 trillion, that includes the interest, for the stimulus bill; $625 billion, which includes interest, for the omnibus bill; $125 billion for the war supplemental. The American people are struggling right now because of the economy, and we're spending money like it's going out of style.
This bill that we're talking about right now under this rule is going to have a $2.4 billion increase over last year. That's 12 percent. And if you compare that to fiscal year 2008, the budget that the programs under this bill operated under until passage of the omnibus in February, it's $4.8 billion more, or a 27 percent increase. And then they've also added $7.9 billion of emergency designated spending during the current fiscal year. Where in the world are we going to get this money?
The American people are starting to realize that there is going to be very high inflation down the road because we can't pay for this stuff, so they're printing this money down at the Treasury Department. And when you print more money and it's chasing the same amount of goods and services, you're going to have inflation, and it's going to be high inflation. We had it in the early eighties when it was 14 percent, and they had to raise interest rates to 21 percent to stop the inflationary trend. And that is what's going to happen again if we don't get control of the spending.
This is the wrong approach. We need to cut spending instead of keep blowing this money.
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