The Budget: RSC Special Order
Mr. CAMPBELL of California. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlelady from Tennessee very much for yielding on this important issue of the budget.
Now you know in the next couple of weeks we will vote on a budget here, Madam Speaker, in this Ho use. And that budget will undoubtedly have a deficit somewhere over $400 billion. Let me say that again: we will vote on a budget in the next few weeks with a deficit of somewhere over $400 billion.
Now as Mrs. Blackburn indicated, these are big numbers and theyand#39;re hard to relate to. I understand that. Until I was elected to Congress, they were pretty hard for me to relate to, too. When 9/11 happened, we had a big deficit. The economy dropped off, as you recall. We spent a lot of money going after al Qaeda and so forth at that time. But since then, weand#39;ve had three straight years of declining deficits. It has been coming down. And in fact, this last year it looked like finally perhaps a balanced budget was in sight.
But now this year, this year for the first time in 4 years, the deficitand#39;s going to go up, and it is not just going to go up a little; itand#39;s almost certainly going to more than double, more than double this deficit. And thatand#39;s just this year. But if we look at the future, it gets even wo rse. If we look here at what is going to happen, and if you just look at this, this shows what will happen to the deficit, to spending in this Government over time if we donand#39;t change where we are headed.
You see, the problem we have got is not that the American people are taxed too little. Itand#39;s that this Congress spends too much. There were tax cuts back in 2003 and in 2001; but since 2003, the revenue of the Federal Government has risen almost 50 percent. Let me make sure people understand that. We red uced tax rates, but because economic activity was generated by that, revenue to the Federal Government actually went up, and it went up every year. But spending keeps going up faster than that, and thatand#39;s what has got to stop.
And where is it going up? Itand#39;s going up in just about every category. As we pile deficits on deficits, the interest we pay goes up. Defense spending is continuing to rise; other spending is continuing to rise. But we also have Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, three things w hich currently take up over 50 percent of the taxes that everyone pays, Madam Speaker.
If we leave them alone, if we donand#39;t reform them, if we donand#39;t change them, you will have to literally double tax rates on every single American in order to have Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and keep anything else like a military, like national parks, like anything else. Nearly double tax rates. That is unsustainable.
What are we doing in this budget to deal with that? Nothing. Not a single thing.
Now, this isnand#39;t just me saying this or just Republicans saying this. Every single analyst, liberal, conservative, right, left, Republican, Democrat agrees that weand#39;re headed towards these numbers, that we are headed towards a situation thatand#39;s unsustainable. Either Medicare goes away, Social Security goes away, Medicaid go es away, Defense Department, all military goes away, and pick two or three or four of those or we more than double taxes on the American people.
Now, we can wait. Thatand#39;s what we always seem to do, we just wait, let time go on a little bit, let the next generation deal with it, let the next Congress deal with it. But the longer we wait, the worse it gets.
And weand#39;re not making this hole any smaller right now. Weand#39;re more than doubling the deficit. It will be proposed to more than double the deficit in what weand#39;re about to vote on in the next couple of weeks. So, weand#39;re actually making this chart much worse.
The problem is spending. You canand#39;t tax the American people enough to spend everything that all of this is, that all of this that weand#39;re headed for, that all everybody in this Congress seems to want to spend, so weand#39;ve got to control the spending.
Now, I have a suggestion for that, Madam Speaker. Because if you look, since 1960, over the last, I think itand#39;s 48 years now, I believe this is right, it may be off by one, but since 1960, I believe weand#39;ve had only 4 years in which there was a surplus, only 4 years in the last 48 in which the government did not spend more money than it took in. So, that shows you that deficits arenand#39;t new. And theyand#39;re not assigned, frankly, to either party. There have been deficits under Republican Congresses, Democratic Congresses, Republican Presidents, Democratic Presidents, and every combination thereof. Deficits seem to be a fundamental problem with this institution.
Our Democratic colleagues came into power last year. And when they came in, they said these deficits are terrible, this debt weand#39;re putting on our children is terrible, weand#39;re going to solve these deficits. And what did they do? They set up a few rules which theyand#39;ve, within a year, decided they would waive and ignore, and now theyand#39;re about to propose doubling last yearand#39;s deficit. You see, the spending goes on.
And there are people out there now talking about socialized medicine. Theyand#39;re saying, gee, we ha ve to cover everyone with some government plan on health insurance. Where is the money going to come from? Where is it going to come from? You canand#39;t pay now for Medicare and Medicaid. The people that are currently under government function programs, you donand#39;t have enough money to pay for them for the next 20 years, where are you going to get it to pay for everybody else?
Madam Speaker, thatand#39;s why one of the suggestions that the lady from Tennessee and I have, and various other people, is that weand#39;re goin g to need a spending limit. You know, average Americans understand, Madam Speaker, that they should save for their retirement. Well, you know, itand#39;s tough sometimes because thereand#39;s things you would like to spend, things maybe you need to spend money on now, and it will eat up all the money you have if you let it. So, you set up an external discipline, like a 401(k) or something, where money comes out of your paycheck so I donand#39;t have the opportunity to spend it and Iand#39;m saving for the future.
Congress can do the same thing as American taxpayers do, which is, set up an external discipline that keeps us from spending more money than is coming in. We need a spending limit. We need something that keeps Congress from spending money faster than the American taxpayer is earning it. Because, you see, if government grows faster than the income of the average American, the only way to get that money is to take more of the average Americanand#39;s money. And that means youand#39;re giving the average American less of their own mon ey to spend on their priorities so that we here in Washington can spend more of their money on ours. And thatand#39;s just wrong.
Spending in this place should not be allowed to grow faster than Americanand#39;s incomes. And we will make some proposals to put that kind of limit on this Congress so that the limits are here and Americans have limits and restrictions removed off of them so they can earn more money and keep it, because thatand#39;s what everyone wants to do.
I yield back to the lady from Tennessee.
Mrs. BLACKBURN. I thank the gentleman from California. And if he would yield for a moment of colloquy.
I want to go back to the issue of the deficit, because you mentioned that the deficit had gone down over the past few years and this year the deficit is going to more than double. And of course we know that much of that is because of increased spending. And I would like for you to go back and touch on that point one more time.
Mr. CAMPBELL of California. Sure. I appreciate the lady from Tennessee yielding for this.
Yes, we have had increased tax revenues every year. In fact, all but one year out of the last 4 years it has been double digits, in other words, 10 percent or more. Thatand#39;s pretty good. I think a lot of Americans out there would love to see their paycheck rise by 10 percent a year. Well, the Federal Governmentand#39;s paycheck has been rising by that amount over the last 4 years, but weand#39;ve continued to spend money. And so now revenue is dropping off a little bit, the increases arenand#39;t quite as big as they were the last 4 years, but government spending has proposed to keep on trucking, keep on going up. And thatand#39;s why youand#39;re going to see this deficit nearly double, probably more than double.
Mrs. BLACKBURN. If the gentleman will yield. What we saw from the `01 and `03 tax reductions was that the Federal Governmentand#39;s revenue, the money the taxpayers are sending in for us to appropriate and spend on behalf of them at the Federal level, that money has been increasing in double digits every year since we started the tax reductions, which allows our taxpayers to keep more money in their pockets. So, what we saw was we made those reductions, and then the Federal Treasury is bringing in more money from the taxpayers. But what we also saw was that Congress continued to increase the percentage and increase their spending.
Mr. CAMPBELL of California. Thatand#39;s absolutely right. And again, as I pointed out, the Democrats who came into power, many of them campaigned and made a big deal about, their issues were, that they would, wanted a balanced budget, wanted to move towards a balanced budget, but now weand#39;re doubling the deficit.
Mrs. BLACKBURN. And if the gentleman will yield, what we also saw was that t he deficit was down, both as a percentage of the GDP and also in the amount of the deficit, the dollar amount, much of that due to the Deficit Reduction Act that we passed that was the `06 budget. And then what has happened last year and what we will see this year is that that deficit is going to double because of increased spending.
Mr. CAMPBELL of California. That increased spending, and the fact that revenue has dropped off some. I mean, the growth in revenue has, in fa ct, dropped off, the economy is down, and so people are not making as much money and paying as much taxes. So, there is that, too.
But thatand#39;s the point of all of this is that the government canand#39;t keep on spending; when times are good, increase spending a lot, and when times are bad, increase spending a lot, too. Thatand#39;s what we canand#39;t do. And thatand#39;s what has gotten us in this mess, thatand#39;s what has gotten us this big national debt, and thatand#39;s what has gotten us into these deficits. And now weand#39;re having a l ittle drop off in revenue. Itand#39;s still probably going to increase, but just not at a 10 percent rate like it has before.
And so Iand#39;m looking to see, where is the proposal on the part of the majority party here to reduce spending so that we can try and, if we donand#39;t balance the budget this year, so that at least we donand#39;t double it, at least we try to control it a little bit, try and get it back on track towards balance. But thatand#39;s not what weand#39;re seeing. Thatand#39;s not what weand#39;re seeing.
Mrs. BLACKBURN. And if the gentleman will yield. One of the things that we have long supported is balancing the budget and making certain that we do have a balanced budget, like many of our States have and like many of our counties and cities operate under a balanced budget, but we donand#39;t. And we do have our entitlement spending with the chart in front of you. I will yield back to the gentleman from California to show where we get to the point there at 2050 where it takes all of our tax revenue to pay our Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. And I yield.
Mr. CAMPBELL of California. Sure. If you look at this little red line here, thatand#39;s the taxes that people pay. Thatand#39;s the 30-year average tax revenue. And this isnand#39;t in dollar terms; this is in terms of a percent of the economy. So itand#39;s not like this year youand#39;re paying the same dollars in taxes that you would in 2080; itand#39;s that youand#39;re going to pay the same percentage of the overall economy in t axes.
So, if you look at that, thatand#39;s the tax rates. And if you see right here, 2000-2010, weand#39;ve been running deficits during all this period, but you still see that this line here is the total spending, itand#39;s a little bit over. And we donand#39;t like the deficits we have now. I mean, Iand#39;ve talked about it, people on the other side of the aisle talked about it. You donand#39;t like the deficits youand#39;ve got now. Well, look at the difference between this red line and the spending now and what happens in 2030 or 2040 or 2050. Itand#39;s huge. And when you get out here to 2060, you see that you have to just about double taxes to pay for everything at that point. And if you double taxes, people canand#39;t and wonand#39;t make as much money because it will all be coming here and nobody will have money to invest. And so itand#39;s really worse. This chart, itand#39;s scary, but it almost actually makes i t look better than it really is.
And so we really have to tackle some of these things. We really have to take this on because we say, 2050, thatand#39;s a long time, I may be dead by then. Whatever. But thatand#39;s not what in this House weand#39;re supposed to be thinking. Weand#39;re not supposed to be thinking about us; weand#39;re supposed to be thinking about the American people now and in the future. And if weand#39;re going to be thinking about the American people now and in the future, itand#39;s going to be a whole lot tougher to deal with this problem in 2020 than itand#39;s going to be to deal with it in 2010. And thatand#39;s why, Mrs. Blackburn, we should be dealing with this now, in the budget now. But nope, itand#39;s just kick the can down the road; accept that doubling of the budget deficit and just kick the can down the road. And I yield back.
Mrs. BLACKBURN. Well, I appreciate that. And especially when you consider the fact that 77 million baby boomers are going to retire between now and 2029. You were j ust pointing to 2030. And where we are with getting to that budget in 2030, you would be able to pay for Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and defense when you get to the line on 2030. And I think also, as we look at our entitlements and we look at Social Security, we know that in 1960, we had a 5:1 worker ratio, five workers for every one retiree. In 2007, this past year, weand#39;ve had three workers for every one retiree. And by the time we get to 2030, weand#39;re going to have two workers for every one retiree. So youand#39;re going to have a married couple with children supporting their family plus supporting a retiree, and I think that that adds to the push that we feel and the urgency that we feel.
Youand#39;re exactly right. And I thank the gentleman from California for all the leadership that he brings to this issue because beginning to deal with the long-term structural issues that exist in this budget are vitally important to us. It is something that has to be dealt with, and itand#39;s something we canand#39;t kick the can d own the road. And I yield.
Mr. CAMPBELL of California. And if the lady will yield for one last parting comment, as you look at this chart, if you look at this chart, because you will hear some people in the majority party talk about that the whole problem is the war in Iraq and itand#39;s defense spending. If you look at this chart over time, the width of this green defense bar doesnand#39;t change that much over time. Now, who knows what will happen, but projections are that defense spending as a percentage of the economy, which is historically not that high right now, but that it wouldnand#39;t change over time. The big problems, the ones that are small here and get really fat there, are if you take the two biggest. One is Medicare and the other is interest on the debt.
Interest on the debt gets big because we keep throwing deficit after deficit after deficit. The way to get that down is simple: Balance the budget, stop running deficits. But we havenand#39;t, as I mentioned, except for 4 year s, I think over the last 40-something, we havenand#39;t had the will here to do that.
The other thing is Medicare. And whatand#39;s so interesting is that that is government-paid-for medical insurance for older Americans, for seniors. But you have people out there now advocating that we should have Medicare for everyone, which youand#39;ve got a problem with Medicare as it is, a huge problem in that it would almost take up all of your tax money by 2080, almost take up all your tax money all by itself.
So, I thank the lady from Tennessee very much and yield back.
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