Issue Position: Government Spending

Issue Position

When I am home in Wyoming, the top concern I hear about is the out-of-control federal spending in Washington. The idea that the federal government can continue to borrow and spend at a breathtaking pace when our national debt is approaching $17 trillion dollars is mind boggling to people, and they are right.

The lion's share of federal spending is called "mandatory" because the amount of tax-dollars flowing out of the Treasury is set by law -- it is auto-pilot spending. Two-thirds of all the tax dollars spent in 2013 will be auto-pilot spending on entitlement programs and interest on the debt. Discretionary spending comprises the remaining one-third and is distributed through the annual appropriations process.

As required by the Budget Control Act (BCA), in 2013 sequestration reduced spending on discretionary and certain mandatory programs. For 2013, pre-sequester discretionary spending was set at $1.043 trillion, the spending level set by the BCA. Sequestration's across-the-board spending cuts reduced discretionary spending to $984 billion, the first time in over four years that discretionary spending has fallen below one trillion dollars. For next year, House Republicans have set a discretionary spending budget of $967 billion, a spending level below the BCA cap for 2014.

Not all federal spending is bad and I know there are federal programs of importance to the State of Wyoming. I will continue to rely heavily on the input and insight of Wyoming citizens to help me understand the impact of spending specific federal programs in our State. But I have been actively engaged in tackling the difficult decisions of spending reductions, because Wyoming sent me to Washington to restore fiscal discipline. Our government is broke. We need to cut up the credit card in order to eliminate the threat America's debt poses to the future of our country.

For the well-being of our country, I intend to fight for a new culture in Washington of saving more and spending less. To this end, I have not requested a single earmark since taking office. My Republican colleagues in the House have decided to follow suit by banning earmarks entirely. In recent years, House Republicans have also cut the operating budget for Members of Congress by more than ten percent. When combined with sequestration cuts in FY2013, House Members' budgets have been cut by nearly 20 percent. I also support ending automatic pay raises for Members of Congress and limiting the pay of Congressman until a budget is passed.

These steps do not save a large amount of money in the grand scheme of things, but they are important first steps towards curing Washington's addiction to spending. I will continue to analyze spending according to its costs and benefits for Wyoming's citizens, many of whom have expressed to me their frustration with runaway federal spending that threatens to bankrupt the Treasury for our children and grandchildren.

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