It’s no secret that many conservative leaders in Congress seem to have forgotten the very reasons they came to Washington in the first place – to fight for lower taxes, smaller government and more individual freedom. As Heritage Foundation President Edwin J. Feulner recently put it, “We [have] strayed from both the principles of Ronald Reagan of just 25 years ago and from the vision of our Founding Fathers.”
That is especially true when talking about out-of-control government spending. When it comes to spending federal taxpayer dollars, these days it’s impossible to distinguish between most members of both major political parties. While some of them talk a good game, the practice of “fiscal restraint” is rarely practiced at all.
Even though Republicans have controlled both the White House and Congress for more than five years, the federal debt and deficits continue to reach record highs with each passing year. In fiscal year 2005, the federal government spent $2.47 trillion, nearly 50 percent more than it spent just 10 years ago. Today, the national debt stands at approximately $8.2 trillion, nearly 70 percent higher than a decade ago. This year, the deficit is $423 billion, and that’s after accounting for a Social Security surplus.
Americans are often told that the increased spending is a result of the War on Terror and unexpected economic challenges. Not so. It’s the direct result of failure on the part of most of our elected leaders to determine adequate trade-offs and make the tough decisions. It’s due to their failure to resist the temptation to spend even more taxpayer money on useless and outdated government programs, and on the establishment of new ones. It other words, the blame for out-of-control federal spending falls directly at the feet of most of the nation’s elected leaders, who continually fail to lead.
Fortunately for grassroots conservatives, there is hope in Congress for restoring the principles in which we all believe: the principles of our Founding Fathers; the principles of President Ronald Reagan; and, more recently, the principles that encompass the budgetary priorities of the 1995 Contract With America, which included balancing the budget, strengthening national security and cutting taxes while at the time providing more than $1 trillion in deficit reduction.
Growing in popularity and influence is the Republican Study Committee (RSC), a group of more than 100 House Republicans, chaired by Congressman Mike Pence (R-IN), and “organized for the purpose of advancing a conservative agenda in the House of Representatives.” This week, the RSC proposed an alternative fiscal year 2007 budget appropriately titled the “Contract With America: Renewed.”
Adhering to the principles of the first House Republican budget resolution passed back in 1995, the RSC budget promises to balance the federal budget by drastically reducing discretionary spending, significantly restructuring three federal agencies, eliminating useless and underperforming federal programs and reforming the process of reconciliation and entitlements. In addition, the RSC budget guards against automatic tax increases to maintain opportunities for individual Americans and decreases foreign aid while it increases defense spending so our military remains strong and is certain to have the equipment needed to fight the War on Terror.
Specifically, the RSC’s "Contract With America: Renewed” would eliminate at least 150 programs from the FY 2007 budget, including several duplicative programs, and proposes nearly $350 billion in reconciliation savings and $392 billion in deficit reduction – that’s taking into account increases in defense spending.
According to Congressman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), Chairman of the RSC Budget & Spending Task Force, who refers to the Contract as a “family savings machine,” the time has come to “get back to our roots and balance the budget. … American families every year have to balance their budgets. They expect no less from the federal government. … By limiting government, we will give families unlimited opportunities.”
Congressman Pence went further by bluntly stating, “With record deficits and debts, the time has come to level with the American people – we are not, as a nation, living within our means. … By enacting the ‘Contract With America: Renewed,’ we will balance the federal budget by cutting wasteful spending and ending outdated government bureaucracies. … The American people know that unbridled growth of government threatens our future, and our freedom.”
Now that’s the principled leadership we’ve been missing.
Read Representatives Pence and Hensarling’s “Letter to the American People” outlining the need for and the details of the “Contract With America: Renewed.”
Download the “Contract With America: Renewed” (.pdf)
March 9, 2006