Tax Increases are a Lousy Deficit Reduction Strategy

Floor Speech

Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to put this week's debate about scheduled budget cuts into some much-needed context. The Federal Government spent $3.5 trillion last year. And yet, even with the $85 billion in cuts scheduled to occur over the next 7 months, the CBO still projects that Federal spending will be $15 billion higher this year than last year.

Only in Washington can billions in cuts be made, total spending still increase, and some claim that the problem is that taxes still aren't high enough. The President got his tax increase 7 weeks ago. But the government spent every dime of this year's revenue from that tax increase in just 7 days.

Mr. Speaker, raising taxes is a lousy deficit reduction strategy because in Washington, tax revenue is never dedicated to deficit reduction. Instead, new taxes are always used to finance more government and more spending.

Rather than demand more tax increases as the solution, I encourage everyone to work together to replace the indiscriminate spending cuts with a smarter plan that sets priorities--but which still enacts an equal amount of much-needed spending restraint.

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