Published: 08-17-07
This month I am traveling around the 5th District to meet with folks and talk with them about my efforts to combat wasteful spending in Washington. As we all know the federal government has a spending problem and its wasteful habits have a drastic impact on taxpayers in East Texas and across America. In 2006 Congress spent $29 billion on earmarks individual spending requests inserted into spending bills by individual lawmakers that benefit a very specific limited number of people.
$29 billion is more than the Department of Veterans Affairs spent on both medical research and services in 2006. That is also enough money to fund the monthly Social Security benefits of over 34.5 million Texas seniors. It is obvious that Congress’ priorities are out of line.
What makes the situation even worse is that Washington has a budget deficit. That means that all of the money we waste on earmarks is coming out of the Social Security Trust Fund. This is money that millions of Americans are counting on for their retirement and Congress is using it to fund “Bridges to Nowhere” in Alaska and other equally ridiculous pork barrel spending projects.
What makes the situation even worse is that Washington has a budget deficit. That means that all of the money we waste on earmarks is coming out of the Social Security Trust Fund. This is money that millions of Americans are counting on for their retirement and Congress is using it to fund “Bridges to Nowhere” in Alaska and other equally ridiculous pork barrel spending projects.
I am working hard in Congress to fight this out-of-control spending and restore fiscal accountability to Washington. I have personally offered amendments that would strike $6.5 million dollars in pork barrel spending from this year’s spending bills. There is no reason that a family in East Texas should be forced to fund a Teapot Museum in North Carolina or training for future employees of Hollywood movie sets. Rest assured I will continue to fight against these wasteful earmarks and Washington’s absurd spending habits.
Another method I support for restoring accountability in Washington’s spending is the line-item veto. The line-item veto would take earmark reform to the next level by allowing the President to identify egregious pork barrel spending requests and send them back to Congress for an up-or-down vote without jeopardizing the entire bill. This would make Congress vote on loads of pork on an individual basis bringing more openness and accountability to federal spending.
Simply put more spending fuels more taxes. I am committed to cutting wasteful spending and I am committed to seeing that you get to spend your money the way you see fit. I have faith that the American people can spend their hard-earned money better than the federal government can.
