The Most Dangerous Credit Card on the Face of the Planet!

[Warph]

The Most Dangerous Credit Card
by  Rep. Kevin Brady and Rep. Jason Chaffetz 

06/24/2009
Hard-working Americans have had enough of outrageous government spending -- and they are not going to stand for it anymore.

Enough is enough.  A trillion dollars here, a trillion there -- doesn't this new Democratic Congress understand there is no "free money"? At this rate, will the average American family ever again see a balanced federal budget in their lifetime? 

It's time to sunset wasteful Washington spending. That's why we are co-chairing a bold new effort by House conservatives to root out government programs and agencies that taxpayers don't need and then send them riding off into the sunset WITHOUT any more of our hard-earned tax dollars.

The newly formed Sunset Caucus and its 42 members have one goal: to protect taxpayers and shrink the behemoth that is our federal government. We will do it -- one wasteful, duplicative, or unnecessary program at a time.

Every member of this Caucus has committed themselves to adopt one or more federal programs they believe has outlived their usefulness (or never should have been enacted) and publicly champion their elimination, including offering zero-funding amendments this summer to the twelve spending bills that fund the national government. 

So far the Caucus has identified nearly a half a trillion dollars -- $472 billion -- of wasteful spending. They include the unspent portion of the controversial economic stimulus boondoggle, Americorps (the federal program where "volunteers" get paid for community service), the heavily subsidized and money losing Amtrak, the failed presidential election fund, millions of dollars for the national party conventions, a "diplomatic attaché" in Paris for the Department of Education, paying federal workers with tax dollars so they can work on union organizing activities and payments to countries to take Guantanamo Bay terrorists out of a perfectly good high security prison.

Do you know we spend $8.7 million dollars a year to connect whalers in Massachusetts with their whaling ancestors in Alaska and Hawaii?  To pay for just one program like that means dedicating all the federal taxes from families in a small rural town of 1,800. With federal deficits running into unimaginable numbers, can we really afford these types of frivolous programs? Is this how people want their hard-earned dollars spend?

The Congressional voting card has become the most dangerous credit card on the face of the planet. There are no limits, no repercussions and no penalties for overuse.

But, the problem is -- it's not our money, it's yours, America.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Brady, a Republican, represents the 8th District of Texas, which includes east and southeast Texas, in the U.S. House of Representatives. Mr. Chaffetz, a Republican, represents the 3rd District of Utah in the U.S. House of Representatives.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 


Michele Bachmann -- June 17th, 2009
Members of Congress often rail against the loss of taxpayer dollars to waste, fraud, and abuse. They are always ready to sharpen their image of fiscal responsibility by calling for greater savings by eliminating excessive spending. But the vigilance of too many Members stops there. Today, my colleagues and I in the Republican Study Committee unveiled the Sunset Caucus to provide an easy opportunity for Congress to reduce the federal budget.

The Sunset Caucus is designed to shrink our ballooning government budget by eliminating federal programs, offices, and agencies that are duplicative or obsolete.

As Ronald Reagan once said, "a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth."

As a member of the Sunset Caucus, I will select some program or agency that has outlived its usefulness, duplicates other government programs or that Congress never had any business creating in the first place.  The fight for the taxpayers has to start somewhere.

The average federal program duplicates five other programs. For example, there are about 60 separate welfare programs, approximately160 job training programs, and over 300 economic development programs. When American families are struggling to make ends meet, Congress should be looking for ways to tighten the government's belt too, and this is a good place to start.

If we can't make the easy decision to cut this kind of wasteful spending, is it is any wonder the American people are doubtful of Washington's intentions to make the so-called "difficult choices?"

[Varmit]

I am sure that looks good on paper, however I am doubtful of its success.  The way that I see, it is not enough to simply eliminate offices, programs, and agencies.  We have to eliminate th work load also.  For example, we cannot simply get rid of office A and transfer its workload to office B.  In doing so we haven't saved a dime.  Yes, the sunset caucus can stand up and say, "look, we eliminated A, B, and C."  What they won't tell you is that the budget for D, E, and F has doubled or tripled.

If the gov't wants to save money they have to abandon the idea that they can solve all of the nations problems by throwing money at them.  Cease the bailouts, allow companies and if need be states to go bankrupt.  Stop trying to control the markets with heavy handed regulations and oversight that is based on the idea of "fairness" and allow capitalism to flourish.