The following is from Congressman Rich Nugent and is a report on what is going on in Washington:
This week, the House is continuing our effort to bring down federal spending. As you already know, we passed a bill to cut spending for the remainder of the year by more than $100 billion from the President’s budget request.
President Obama threatened to veto that bill even though it would only reduce this year’s deficit by 6%. Senate Democrats, for their part, have refused to negotiate with us on it, declaring our cuts, “dead on arrival.”
As a result, Congress is nearing the March 4th deadline when the current spending authority runs out and the government shuts down. Quite honestly, nobody wants to see that happen. Your government ought to be able to work in good faith and to reach a compromise that the American people can support.
House Republicans are making every effort to work with the Senate to get such a compromise. We’ve offered a two-week stop-gap spending bill that cuts $4 billion. This should give the Senate ample time to come up with a counterproposal to our $100 billion cuts.
I believe that making this effort is an important first gesture of good will. I expect the Senate Democrats to respond in kind. You see, everybody in Washington talks about the need for deficit reduction. But as soon as somebody proposes a specific cut, the Democrats say, “Oh no, that’s no good. We can’t cut that program.”
Well… What do you propose we cut?
The government cannot continue spending the way it has been, and certainly not in ridiculous, two-week increments. It’s the fundamental culture of spending that needs to change in Washington. You can’t just talk about deficit-reduction out of one side of your mouth and then run around calling for spending out the other. The current debate over high-speed rail in Florida is a perfect example of that.
The Obama administration wants to reduce the deficit, but it also wants to spend $53 billion on high-speed rail across the country – $2.4 billion in Florida. While I agree that high-speed trains are certainly nice to have, we don’t have the money to pay for them. We’re projecting trillion dollar annual deficits out as far as the eye can see and current debt levels are already at an all-time high. This shouldn’t even be up for discussion.
Last week, I sent a letter to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood (a former Republican Congressman) in which I urged him to consider the financial situation we are in. I urged him to use the money to pay down part of the national debt, and if the President rejects that idea and insists on spending the money, that he at least respect Florida’s right to determine for itself what infrastructure needs would be the best investment. Keep in mind that the federal government has borrowed this money in Florida taxpayers’ (i.e. your) names. You ought to decide how it’s spent.
In the meantime, I’ll leave you with this: Gov. Rick Scott refused to accept the rail money because he said he knew it would be a boondoggle that Floridians will end up subsidizing for years to come. Instead, he expressed that a better infrastructure investment would be in our ports, our highways, and our logistical infrastructure.
What do governors know about the needs in their own states? According to President Obama, not as much as he does. As I said in my letter to Sec. LaHood, that is “the height of federal arrogance” and it’s time that the federal government got out of states’ business, out of small business, and out of our business.
A link to the LaHood letter is here.
Sincerely,