Hensarling Discusses Federal Debt Crisis
Congressman Discusses Recent Spending Cuts and Need for Fiscal Sanity
FORNEY – U.S. Congressman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), a leading fiscal conservative and Chairman of the House Republican Conference, was in Forney today to talk with constituents about the federal debt crisis and recent action he has taken to further cut job destroying spending and Washington waste.
“There is a true, spending-driven debt crisis in America,” said Hensarling. “The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen has said the biggest threat we have to our national security is our debt. Economist Robert Samuelsson has said this spending could trigger an economic and political death spiral. Democrat, Erskine Bowles, who headed up the presidents fiscal responsibility commission said the debt is like a cancer; it’s truly going to destroy the country from within.”
“And yet what do we have?” asked Hensarling. “We have the president presenting a new budget that will, again, double the national debt in five years, triple it in ten, and add thirteen trillion dollars worth of red ink to the nation’s debt. This is after expanding garden variety government eighty-four percent in two years. East Texans know we must stop spending money we don’t have.”
Hensarling explained how House Republicans have now passed over $700 billion in cuts this Congress. “In February, the House voted to repeal the government takeover of health care, which would cut new spending by $2.6 trillion over ten years and reduce the deficit by $700 billion. In addition, by repealing the bill’s job-destroying 1099 provision, we end burdensome reporting requirements on small business owners while saving taxpayers $24.8 billion in wasteful spending found in ObamaCare.” Hensarling continued, “The House also voted to de-fund National Public Radio, reducing job-destroying spending and getting government out of the radio business. These cuts and others over the last three and a half months bring the total savings this Congress to more than $700 billion.”
Hensarling went on to discuss how the Republican-led House of Representatives is listening to the American people and cutting spending as the House recently passed the “Path to Prosperity” budget proposal. “The fact-based budget proposal the House passed cuts through the rhetoric in Washington to reach this simple truth: in order to create jobs today and avoid national bankruptcy tomorrow, we must stop spending money we don’t have. Our historic budget will put us back on track to cut spending, encourage job creation, reduce our deficits and debt, foster economic growth, and reform and protect health and retirement security for all Americans.
“No nation can spend, tax, borrow, or bail-out its way to prosperity. The ‘Path to Prosperity’ operates on the honest premise that we are in a debt crisis because Washington spends too much, not because it taxes too little. We don’t have a revenue problem—we have a spending problem. By cutting $6.2 trillion in government spending and reducing deficits by $4.4 trillion over the next decade compared to the President’s budget, the ‘Path to Prosperity’ stops spending money we don’t have and enacts common sense reforms to change the spending trajectory in Washington. Our plan also repeals and defunds the job-destroying government takeover of health care and significantly lowers spending, restraining the size of government to 20 percent of the economy by 2015 and 15 percent of the economy in 2050.”
Hensarling cited that decades of economic studies have shown that countries who implement spending cuts to reduce their debt actually boost job creation and economic growth in the short-term. “Americans know full well that you can’t help the job seeker by punishing the job creator. And we can’t tax, spend, borrow and bailout our way to economic growth and job creation. The Democrats tried, and as a result, federal spending rose to record highs and unemployment climbed to 9 percent or higher for more than 20 months—the worst jobless streak since the Great Depression.”
“The American people fear—rightfully so—that historic debt will lead to historic taxes which will result in even fewer jobs for Americans. To create a better environment for job growth and save our children from national bankruptcy, the federal government must stop spending money that it simply does not have.”
Hensarling continued, “I didn’t come to Congress to just talk about reducing our debt; I came to do something about it. As the debt has grown, my determination to save future generations from bankruptcy is even stronger. At a time when we are borrowing 42 cents on every dollar, much of it from the Chinese, we need to take significant steps to ending Washington’s culture of spending so that economic confidence can be restored and Americans can go back to work.”
“America faces a choice of two futures. Either we can ignore the spending-driven debt crisis, continue the status quo and accelerate the unnecessary decline of our exceptional nation, or we can reverse course and build a freer and more prosperous future for every American. The ‘Path to Prosperity’ is a plan to put America back on fiscally responsible ground to reduce debt and increase job growth, and we call on Senate Democrats and President Obama to join us in this fight,” concluded Hensarling.