Date: 2015-03-24
Speaker: TOM PRICE (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Georgia

Mr. Chairman. I yield myself such time as I may consume. I would like to put a little more meat on the bones. if you will. of this issue of discretionary spending and of mandatory spending because it really is the locus of the problem that we have. and I think our friends on the other side of the aisle would agree. When you look at history. over the last 50 years or sothe red on this is mandatory spending. and the blue is discretionary spendingback in 1962. mandatory spending was about a third of our Federal budget. and discretionary spending was about twothirds. Over the last 50 years. what has happened is that that has flipped. and mandatory spending has become twothirds or even more of Federal spending. and discretionary spending has become about a third. Now. why is that important? All of the things that we say that we care about outside of Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security. basically. are in this blue area. Defense is in the blue area. as are transportation. energy. education. research. All of the things we say that we want to protect are in the blue area. This is what our Appropriations Committee deals with. The automatic spendingthe mandatory programsare crowding out. as you see. Mr. Chairman. the discretionary spending. The challenge to my colleagues is to recognize this problem. to recognize what needs to be done. What needs to be done is that the mandatory programs need to be addressed. You cant bury your head in the sand and say it doesnt make any difference. We spend about $3.6 trillion a year on the entire Federal budget. About $2.6 trillionballpark figures of $2.5 trillion. $2.6 trillionis of basically three things. which is Medicare and Medicaid. Social Security. and interest on the debt. which has been talked about and that we arent able to do anything about. We cant change it. When you think about the Federal Government. everything else is about $1 trillion a year: education. energy. legislative branch. judiciary. court system. transportation. research. defense. Everything else in the Federal Government. with the exception of Medicare. Medicaid. and Social Security. is about $1 trillion. Now. Mr. Chairman. people out there across this great Nation know that. for 4 out of the last 6 years. Washingtonthis countryhas run a deficit of greater than $1 trillion each year. which means that you could do away with the entire Federal Governmentthe entire thing. everythingwith the exception of Medicare. Medicaid. and Social Security. and you wouldnt even balance the budget. That is the challenge. Very shortly. mandatory spending is going to consume the entire Federal budget. We have got a problem that we have got to deal with. If we dont. what happens is that we are no longer going to be able to pass off to our kids and our grandkids the kind of opportunity for them to realize their dreams. That is what we need to do. Mr. Chairman. We need to recognize the problems. and we need to recognize the challenges. and that is what our budget does. It recognizes that mandatory spending cant continue on the path that it is on. Sadly. in that mandatory spending. those programs are actually going broke: Medicare. insolvent by 2033. Social Security. insolvent by 2034. What our budget does is responsibly. positively. honestly say to the American people that we recognize that challenge. It is reckless for us not to recognize and address that challenge. so we do in our budget put forward positive solutions to those challenges so that we can. as a percentage of the amount of spending in the Federal Government. narrow the amount of money spent on mandatory programs so that we have more moneys available for the kinds of things that everybody on this House floor and everybody in this Chamber wants to do. We want to make certain that we have the greatest opportunity for the next generation. but that light is getting dim unless we address the challenges that we face. That is why it is so important to adopt a positive budget. an honest budget. a sincere budget. a budget that recognizes these challenges but that puts in place positive solutions. I appreciate the conversations and the discussions of my friends on the other side of the aisle. but it is absolutely vital that we. as Representatives of the people. come together and solve these challenges that we have from a financial standpoint so that we can pass on to our kids and our grandkids the greatest nation the world has ever known. I reserve the balance of my time.