House Chamber, Washington D.C.
March 20, 2013
Mr. Chairman:
Our
fiscal problem can be summed up in just three numbers: 39, 37 and 64.
39 percent is the combined increase of inflation and population over
the past ten years. 37 percent is the increase in revenues.
The
third number is killing us: 64 percent is the increase in spending –
nearly twice the rate of inflation and population growth.
This has never been a revenue problem – it has always been a spending problem.
Yet,
characteristic of other Democratic budgets, the Senate further
accelerates spending while trying to chase it with a trillion dollars of
new taxes.
And
despite a trillion dollars of new taxes they still can’t ever balance
their budget. There’s a reason. It’s because this is a spending
problem and dogmatically trying to address it on the revenue side will
simply drive more and more spending until we become Greece. Or Detroit.