“One day I’m going to have to face my now seven-year-old daughter and my five-year-old son. I at least want to be able to look them in the eye and say ‘I was not silent when your congress voted to mortgage your future and be the first generation in America’s history to leave the next generation with less freedom, less opportunity and a lower standard of living.”
“This budget, during a recession no less.”
“Never have so few voted so fast to in debt so many. This budget will rack up more debt in the next ten years than we’ve incurred in the last two hundred and twenty.
“The American ethic used to be ‘work harder today so our children will have an easier life tomorrow.’ It now seems that the ethic is, ‘Make the government’s life easier today so our children will have a harder life tomorrow.’
will impose new taxes on almost every single struggling family in America. This budget, after increasing the deficit tenfold in just two years, will now nearly triple national debt after just 10 years. It is a budget that spends too much, taxes too much and borrows too much, and yet the worst is to come.
“I have seen no example of any nation that has ever borrowed and spent its way into prosperity. I’ve seen no example of that although we are clearly trying it here. $700 billion of bailout money costing every household in the nation $6,034; a $1.13 trillion government stimulus plan costing every household in America $9,810; a $400 billion omnibus spending plan, chock full of all kind of pork barrel spending, costing every household in America $3,534. Now on top of that, the Democrats in Congress are proposing the single largest budget in the history of the nation, adding another $31,032 per household.
Widely regarded as an expert on federal budget and spending issues, Hensarling has firmly established his reputation as an outspoken advocate for taxpayer protection in Washington, D.C. His efforts to restrain spending, eliminate government waste and keep future generations from inheriting a crushing amount of debt have garnered numerous accolades from fiscal reform groups, including the “Friend of the Taxpayer” award from Americans for Tax Reform and “Hero of the Taxpayer” award from the National Taxpayers Union, whose analysis has twice shown Hensarling’s spending agenda to be the least expensive in Congress. For his efforts, National Review dubbed Hensarling “Representative Budget Reform”.
In addition to authorizing the most fiscally conservative budget in Congress three years in a row, Hensarling is also author of the Family Budget Protection Act, which was widely praised by budget watchdog groups as, “the gold standard of budget reform”. The legislation enacts comprehensive budget enforcement and spending discipline aimed at protecting the family budget from the explosive growth of the federal budget.
Hensarling’s bill would accomplish these reforms by first restricting the growth of the federal budget to no more than the growth of the economy, except in periods of bona fide national emergencies. Second, it would do away with so-called baseline budgeting, congressional rules that dishonestly and automatically inflate the growth of every federal program. Finally, it would take the annual budget from little more than a suggestion and give it the force of law.
“Republicans offered an alternative that restrained spending, eased the tax burden on working families and small business and provided a common sense solution for entitlement reform. With our budget, the United States would have emerged from this recession by stoking the fires of small business and American ingenuity, not the growth of government.
“This budget has ensured that we will turn from a nation of ‘We the People’ to a nation of ‘They, the Government.’”
