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Budget and Debt Columns
2/26/10 When Will America Recover?
I just returned from speaking at Oxford and several other British Universities on American politics and the economy.  England, like the United States, has high unemployment and huge government debt.  Many I spoke to believed that the current global economic mess is all our fault.  In a sense, they are right.  As the world's leading economy, our economic health affects everyone, especially trading partners like England.  We are its largest trading and investment partners at $400 billion last year.  Read More...
11/21/2004 The Coming Financial Crisis
Twelve years ago, I came to Congress with the goal of improving the financial standing of the United States. I have fought hard - as a member of the Budget Committee, as Chairman of the Debt Limit Task Force, and as Chairman of the bipartisan Social Security Task Force - to reduce unnecessary spending, hold down the debt we leave to our kids and grandkids, and restore the solvency of Social Security. As a freshman, I offered a budget resolution to balance the budget and the first Social Security reform legislation since the 1983 Greenspan commission report. Unfortunately, there were never enough like-minded members to make a difference.   Read More...
10/17/2004 Government's Spending Binge
Next year, for the President and Congress, there are few more important issues than dealing with overspending and overpromising. Already, we pay more than $242 billion a year or 10.5% of total spending for interest on the debt. The federal government is now running the largest budget deficit in our history, which is estimated to be $574 billion for the fiscal year that ended on September 30. We will soon have to increase the $7.384 trillion statutory debt limit in order to accommodate this borrowing, which our children and grandchildren will ultimately have to finance.   Read More...
7/18/2004 The Appropriations Game
Congress is now in the middle of appropriations season. Spending targets have been set and appropriations bills are coming to the floor. As we review these spending bills, it is easy to see the influence of special interest lobbyists and members� pork barrel projects. As two recent editorials in the Wall Street Journal have pointed out, some members on the Appropriations Committee use what has become a routine sort of blackmail to prevent scrutiny and ensure their bill passes.  Read More...
5/23/2004 Budget Battle
The federal government is now running the largest budget deficit in our history, which is estimated to be $638 billion for the current fiscal year. We will soon have to increase the $7.384 trillion statutory debt limit in order to accommodate this borrowing, which our children and grandchildren will ultimately have to finance. The House of Representatives passed a budget conference report on May 19 and it now goes before the Senate. The budget is a mixed bag, but I voted for it because it is the best we�ve done holding the line on spending in six years and because passing a budget allows us to pass some bills in the Senate with 51 votes instead of 60.   Read More...
2/15/2004 Lessons from Lincoln
This week, we celebrated Abraham Lincoln's 195th birthday. In his famous address at Gettysburg, he noted that "our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." The Civil War was "testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure."  Read More...
2/01/2004 Deciding on Next Year's Budget
From the founding of this country, it took until 1975 to amass $500 billion of federal debt. Unfortunately, we are now adding more new debt to our books every year than we did over the first 199 years of our history. The deficit (spending in excess of revenues) for fiscal year 2005 is expected to be $535 billion for 2005. We've never run a deficit this high, and we need to take decisive action in this budget to address our overspending.   Read More...
12/28/2003 2003 and Looking Ahead
2003 has been an exciting and momentous year. Our policy in Iraq, from the run-up to war to the magnificent performance of our troops to the capture of Saddam Hussein and the democratization process where already, most Iraqis are economically better off, will have effects for decades. Our work in Afghanistan has stopped the Taliban and has resulted in a reduction in the terrorist recruitment and training in that country. We reached less positive turning points in our space policy with the loss of a the Columbia space shuttle, and in our entitlement programs with increased spending and the creation of a new prescription drug benefit in Medicare. The economy has been growing stronger, but the government ran a record deficit that will have to be reduced.   Read More...
11/30/2003 We Need a New Budget Process
Congress and the Administration are once again facing gigantic and growing deficits. There are many explanations, but unrestrained spending is the biggest. With the tallies in from the fiscal year ended September 30, spending grew by almost 9% last year and by 21% over the last two years. This is before you consider the supplemental for Iraq, the energy bill, the new entitlement for prescription drugs law, or the omnibus appropriations bill that is still being written and which Congress will consider December 8. Non-military discretionary spending, which the Administration had pledged to hold to 4% growth, actually rose 8.5% - or roughly four times as fast as inflation.   Read More...
10/19/2003 A Plan to Fix the Budget
The preliminary estimates for the 2003 deficit are in - the fiscal year ended on September 30 - and they are terrible. The Congressional Budget Office is projecting a final deficit of $535 billion (including $162 billion borrowed out of the Social Security trust fund). This deficit now brings the debt to $6.83 trillion, or $93,571 for a family of four. Make no mistake, servicing that debt will reduce the standard of living for future generations. In response, I have joined with other budget hawks to propose a budgetary austerity plan to bring attention to the problems and hopefully bring spending back into line with revenues.   Read More...
08/24/2003 Faith-Based Initiatives
Since the beginning of the so-called "war on poverty," the government has spent trillions of dollars on programs such as AFDC, Food Stamps, WIC, Medicaid, Title I, and Head Start. For most of their existence, these programs had little effect on the poverty rate. But in 1994, Congress enacted welfare reform, which both required the able-bodied to work for benefits and put time limits on benefits. This cut the welfare rolls between one-third and one-half and greatly increased the rate of employment among the poor.   Read More...
05/18/2003 A Rising Sea of Debt
The few years of surpluses between 1998 and 2001 - which weren't really surpluses except by Washington standards - seem to have given us a false sense of security. Since then, the situation has deteriorated rapidly, and we face the most serious debt and overspending crisis in American history.   Read More...
03/16/2003 An Ambitious Budget
The congressional budget process has begun. The House Budget Committee reported out the fiscal year 2004 budget resolution at 1:30 am on March 13. This resolution is likely, with no more than minor modification, to pass the House next week.  Read More...
03/09/2003 The Forgotten Deficit
Though overshadowed by national security and the conflict in Iraq, this year's budget is very important. We must reverse the rapid descent into deficit spending that we've seen in recent years. From the $236 billion surplus recorded in 2000, the budget situation has deteriorated to a projected $400 billion deficit for this fiscal year (ending September 30) and probably as much for next year. This is a swing of more than six hundred billion dollars in a $2.1 trillion budget just three years. And, this includes no money for a possible conflict in Iraq which will likely add tens of billions of dollars more to these deficits.   Read More...
11/10/2002 The Next Congress
The November 5th election results have significant implications for the legislation and policy that will be implemented over the next two years. The election was historic, in terms of the unusual gains in both the House and Senate, for the president's party in a non-presidential election. Historically, these "mid-term" elections lead to losses for the president's party. In fact, the last time the president's party gained in a first mid-term election was 1934 under Franklin Roosevelt.  Read More...
09/08/2002 The Coming Budget Fight
As the 107th Congress moves toward adjournment, a sharp dispute over the budget is brewing. Due to the failure of the Senate to pass a budget resolution, the budget process this year has been even less orderly and disciplined than usual. The House is drafting its appropriations bills to match the President's budget target, while the Senate has chosen a higher spending level. This will make reconciling the House and Senate versions of the appropriations bills especially difficult and contentious.   Read More...
07/21/2002 Revolt in the House
The red ink is rising in Washington. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released new projections showing this year's deficit rising to $165 billion. The years of surpluses in the '90s and strongly rising revenues strengthened the biggest spenders, many of them on the Appropriations Committee. As a result, Congress has acquired a spending habit that will have to be broken.   Read More...
05/26/2002 The Budget Challenge
The current budget deficit is the result of an explosion of spending. In 1998, we passed and executed a plan designed to balance the budget in fiscal year 2002. That budget projected FY 02 revenues of just under $1.89 trillion. Actual revenues for FY 2002 are now expected to come in over $2 trillion, or more than 5 % above the projection. Revenues have exceeded the estimates we made five years ago despite both the economic slowdown and the tax cut. This demonstrates that the real problem in Washington is the big spenders.   Read More...
05/19/2002 Smarter Welfare
On May 16, the House of Representatives passed, with my support, the Personal Responsibility, Work, and Family Promotion Act of 2002 (welfare reform). The bill continues and builds on the successful 1996 reform, which moved us from a welfare system that bred dependency to one that encourages self-sufficiency. It has been remarkably successful. Since 1996, Michigan and the nation as a whole have reduced their welfare caseload by about sixty percent.  Read More...
04/07/2002 Taxes, Debt, and the Economy
April 15 will soon be upon us. The annual tax obligation, with its pointless paperwork and aggravation, will soon be over for another year. The expense of our government is enormous. The average family in America pays more in taxes than on food, clothing and shelter combined. Tax Freedom Day, the day Americans stop working for the government and start keeping the money they earn, landed on May 10th last year. This meant that a higher percentage of earnings went for government taxes than ever before in the history of our nation. The typical employee now spends nearly three hours of an eight-hour workday just to pay the government.  Read More...
03/24/2002 A Wartime Budget
On March 20, the House approved a budget resolution for 2003. While this is always the first important event of the annual congressional budget cycle, it may be even more notable this year. It is widely thought that the Senate may not produce its own blueprint for spending due to policy divisions. If it doesn't, the just-passed budget resolution will likely be used to set the appropriations targets in just the House and not in the Senate.   Read More...
03/03/2002 Raising the Debt Ceiling - Again
Soon, Congress will have to raise the $5,950,000,000,000 statutory ceiling on the federal debt or face a shut down of many government services. I've long been interested in the debt ceiling and its use to help control government overspending. In 1995 and 1996, I was the Chairman of the Speaker's Debt Limit Task Force which produced a report on the manipulation of the debt ceiling. This experience gives me some views on current deliberations for a new debt increase.   Read More...
02/10/2002 The President's Budget
The President released his fiscal year 2003 (starting Oct. 1) budget proposal on February 4. I am concerned that the President's budget, which projects a deficit of $80 billion for 2003, could be an excuse to reopen the flood gates to overspending. It would have been easier to hold the line if the President had submitted a balanced budget. Congress will now get to work drawing up its own budget. The tendency will be to go along with this popular President's suggestions. However, there is a good chance that the House of Representatives will draw up a balanced budget.   Read More...
01/13/2002 The Agenda for the New Year
2001 brought many dark clouds, from recession to terror to war. Some of these clouds did have silver linings. We should all be proud of the way this country pulled together in the wake of September 11 and the masterful way our armed forces have successfully waged war with limited means and few troops on famously difficult terrain. Our President and military leaders deserve a lot of credit.  Read More...
10/21/2001 Paying for War
The war on terrorism has placed strain on our budget and economy. Funding the war, providing economic relief, and otherwise stimulating our economy will not come cheap. Congress and the President have come to a preliminary agreement to increase spending (after inflation) by 8%, up from the 4% proposed in the President's budget. As a result, we will be digging into the Social Security trust fund to pay for some of this spending. While some of this spending is clearly necessary to respond to the attacks on America, there is an impulse among many big spenders to add all sorts of pork and new and expanded social programs. It is important to prevent a return to deficit spending.   Read More...
09/09/2001 Decision Time
Congress has come back into session after Labor Day and immediately faces a pressing problem. The August projections from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) show the surplus shrinking dramatically, far more than expected from the tax cut package alone. The slowing economy is reducing tax revenues and increasing demands for government services. Consequently and most alarming for me is that now CBO officially projects that government will spend $9 billion from the Social Security trust fund in the fiscal year ending September 30. I suggested this possibility in a letter to the President on August 3 and in meetings with House leaders that same week.   Read More...
08/19/2001 Back to Deficit Spending?
The federal government will soon experience another confrontation over the budget. As we move through the appropriations process, it is becoming clear that the slowing economy is reducing government revenues below projections. The weaker economy both reduces tax collections and increases demand for government services, draining away much of the surplus.   Read More...
05/06/2001 Congress in High Gear
It was a fast-paced week in Washington. On Monday, April 30, I met with the President to commemorate his first 100 days. I had lunch with Interior Secretary Gale Norton where we discussed some of her major challenges, including the management of federal rangelands in the West, resource mining and exploration, and forest management.   Read More...
03/04/2001 The Next Budget Challenge
One of the challenges that the President and Congress now face is what to do with the extra tax revenues coming into Washington. Under the budget projections issued by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the federal government will retire the debt held by the public available to be retired by about 2005. The President's tax cut proposals now appear likely to push off that date, but only a few years. Figuring out what to do about the problem is an interesting question.   Read More...
01/07/2001 A New Congress Begins
On January 3, the new House of Representatives convened to swear in its members. After that task, it set about electing leaders, establishing House rules, selecting committee chairmen and assignments.   Read More...
12/10/2000 The Budget Challenge
This week, I had a "job interview" with the House leadership for Chairman of the House Budget Committee. I pledged to reestablish the hard line we took against wasteful spending in our first three years in the majority.   Read More...
08/27/2000 Town Hall Meetings
Recently, I've held a series of town hall meetings in Jackson, Adrian, Hudson, Hillsdale, Battle Creek, Grand Ledge, Charlotte, and Coldwater. These meetings have given me valuable opportunities to meet with constituents, listen to their concerns and ideas, and help them with problems they have with government.   Read More...
02/27/2000 Fixing the Budget
Congress is now considering process changes to get a handle on the budget. They're looking in the wrong place. Members should focus on substance rather than process.   Read More...
01/23/2000 Cutting Through Budget Flim-Flam
The budget process will soon begin anew. As usual, this will lead to all sorts of inflated claims. This year it seems that most of these claims will involve the debt and how much of it is being paid off.   Read More...
01/16/2000 The Next Budget
The President will offer his proposed budget at the beginning of February, which is likely to call for significantly increased spending. According to news reports circulating in Washington, the new White House budget will ignore the spending caps reached in a 1997 breakthrough agreement with Congress, a move that could open the way for new spending initiatives.   Read More...
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