Budget of the United States Federal Government
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. WOMACK. I thank the gentleman, first of all, for his great
leadership on this subject.
The gentleman from the Hoosier State and I came in together. Back in
2010, we were elected to this Congress, and I can't speak necessarily
for the gentleman, I can only speak for myself, but I would almost bet
that my friend from Indiana would agree that we came up here to tackle
the Nation's biggest problems.
Mr. Speaker, the Framers of our country were visionaries. They got it
right on the formation of the country and the established government
that guides our every decision. They not only had the foresight to
establish constitutional principles and processes that addressed the
challenges of the day, but that sustain and guide our Nation now 2\1/4\
centuries later.
What you have just heard in the last few minutes, and I have been
witness to the presentation made by my friend from South Carolina, with
commentary from the gentleman from Indiana, I am going to present many
of the same arguments in the time that I have before you today because
I think they are worth repeating, and my chart may show it a little bit
differently.
Mr. Speaker, I came to the Congress and was immediately placed on the
Appropriations Committee. As a member of that committee, one of my jobs
is to look after the discretionary piece of the Federal budget. As has
already been mentioned, the discretionary piece of the Federal budget
is getting squeezed.
There was a time in the not too distant past that discretionary
spending was the largest share of spending and, as was mentioned by my
friend from South Carolina, things that you recognize your Federal
Government for. He articulated a number of those.
When you look at this particular chart, this end of the chart would
represent 1962. The other end of the chart is just about 3 years from
now, in 2018, you can see--in case you have trouble seeing, let me just
go through the color coding here.
The purple at the top is the amount of money that we have to pay,
year in and year out, to service our debt. Those of you at home, Mr.
Speaker, that have a credit card bill that comes in every month, there will be a category there or a block there that says minimum payment due.
The minimum payment is usually the reflection of interest due on that
account and not necessarily a reduction in the principle amount owed.
That is exactly what this purple is. That is the minimum payment due,
year and in and year out, that we have to make in order to satisfy the
creditors, the people that have given money to this country, loaned
money to this country for governmental purposes.
As you can see, Mr. Speaker, this chart shows that that area in
purple has grown through the years. It tightened up a little bit back a
few years ago. But now, if you look at that last piece of it, from
right here, you will notice that it is taking a dip. And if we extended
that chart out for many more years, it gets progressively worse.
The next color is red, and that is the reflection of mandatory
spending, talked about by the gentleman before me, that constitutes how
much money we have to spend year in and year out to pay for the
programs that people all across this country are entitled to. The
biggest driver of the long-term consequences of mandatory spending
would be Medicare. There are many charts that will show you the glide
path Medicare is on.
Mr. Speaker, something happened last night at midnight that affects
the ongoing cost of that piece of mandatory spending. That is, 11,000
people celebrated a birthday as we rolled into the new day; 11,000
people aged into that program. Now, Mr. Speaker, tonight at midnight,
something else is going to happen that is going to influence the growth
of that area in red; and that is, another 11,000 people, or
thereabouts, are going to age into this program that they automatically
qualify for when they turn 65. Thankfully, more and more people are
living well beyond 65, and I am glad for that.
If you look at that red, coupled with the purple, you can see that
since 1962, it has commanded a much larger share of Federal spending,
and it is putting a tremendous squeeze on the programs that people like
me, as an appropriator, have to work with to fund the other essential
forms of government.
In fact, I have a lot of people say to me when I go home: You know,
Mr. Womack, you are an appropriator. You are in charge of all this
spending. You ought to be able, with your vote and with your leadership
on that committee, you ought to be able to see that the books of the
Federal Government are balanced.
But, Mr. Speaker, if you look at the last two colors--the green,
which is nondefense spending, and the blue, which represents defense
discretionary spending--these two colors have gotten smaller and
smaller and smaller, so small now that they represent about a third of
our spending. And you do the math.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. WOMACK. Well, I am glad the gentleman did interrupt.
And to carry our colloquy just a little bit further, the gentleman
from South Carolina is a former Governor of South Carolina, so he has
had some experience dealing with balanced budgets and having to live
within your means, as a former chief executive of a State, one of the
50 States in our country. So you have a great appreciation for how
important it is to be able to craft budgets that live within your means
and address the major drivers of what could be deficit spending at the
State level.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. WOMACK. I thank the gentleman.
Reclaiming my time, I just want to say, before I go to my next chart,
that this isn't an option for us, to allow this to continue on this
path without the interaction of this Congress and solutions offered by
this Congress, many of which are going to be big deals because when you
get this far along into a problem, the solutions to the problem get
much larger. They are going to require a lot more political courage.
But we have to address it because if we don't, in just a few years
beyond the 2018 timeframe that this chart shows, there will be no money
left for the items that you see in green and blue.
And let me hasten to remind you that the items in blue are national
defense.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. WOMACK. I appreciate the gentleman's perspective.
Finally, Mr. Speaker, I want to show you this one.
I was fortunate to get elected in 2010 by a significant majority of
the people in the Third District of Arkansas. I consider that area of
our State to be the most dynamic in all of our State. It has got a lot
going for it. It has got great jobs, great health care, wonderful
educational institutions, effective governments, the University of
Arkansas Razorbacks. I mean, there are a lot of great things you can
say about the area that I represent. And it is different than a lot of
places around our country, I will submit to that.
While I made a promise to the people that elected me, the biggest
promise that I made, the one that I hold closest to my heart and the
promise that drives all of the decisions that I make, particularly to
my friends that have joined me here in the Chamber today regarding
budgets, deficits, debt, long-term spending, and those kinds of things,
are the promises I made to these two young men right here. This is
Liam. He is 8. And that is Kaden. Kaden is not even 2 yet. They are
cousins. These are my grandkids.
When I look into the eyes of these two precious little boys, I see
the innocence of youth, but I also see something that they can't see. I
see a tremendous burden that is growing every day, every week, every
year that these two kids have had nothing to do in creating, and that
is a mountain of debt and interest payments for borrowed money that go
as far as the eye can see.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. WOMACK. I want to give you some perspective before I close, Mr.
Speaker.
The only budget that we have laying out there right now is the
President's budget. It arrived on time. It never balances--never--and
continues to add a lot of taxes and a lot of debt and a lot of interest
burdens on the generations of these two kids right here.
But here is what is inescapable: the net interest on the debt that we
will pay this year--and I might need some help on this, Mr. Rokita--I
think it is around $250 billion?
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. WOMACK. Around $250 billion. It is a lot of money. We could build
a lot of roads and bridges, educate a lot of people, pay for a lot of
things with that $250 billion, give or take.
The President's budget, if you rolled it out for 10 years, in the 10-
year window before this young man can vote and before this young man
turns 12, the net interest on the debt will rise to $785 billion a
year. That is not a sustainable path, and that is why I was pleased to
accept the appointment to the Budget Committee as one of the three
appropriators assigned to this committee. That is why I enjoy the work
that I do. That is why I appreciate so much my friend from Indiana, my
friend from Georgia, my friend from South Carolina, and the others that
will parade down here and talk about these issues. They are the most
serious things that affect domestic America today.
And out of deference to these two young men and to their parents--
Will and Amanda, and Kayle and Philip--it is my hope and my prayer that
we will find the courage to support the solutions, as large as they may
be, to save America's next greatest generation.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source