Wilson Urges Democrats to Help Decrease the Federal Budget

Today, Congressman Joe Wilson (R-SC) expressed his strong support for a commonsense proposal to reform the federal budget, and also urged House Democrats to support this fiscally responsible plan: "When American families face financial crises, they make important sacrifices and responsible decisions to get their budget back on track," said Congressman Wilson. "As the federal government continues to pay for the rising costs of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Congress must also make necessary sacrifices and follow a strict budget. House Republicans are leading the effort to reduce spending and have recently proposed commonsense reforms to eliminate 98 federal programs, saving more than $4.3 billion in discretionary spending. "Democrats' strong opposition to this proposal is unfortunately not surprising. Led by Liberal Democrat Nancy Pelosi, they have tried to increase federal spending by tens of billions of dollars at every stage of the legislative process. Earlier this year, not a single Democratic House Member supported the lean budget that passed the Congress. Democrats seem to view the budget as a credit card and when the bill gets too high, they pay for the bill by simply raising taxes on the American people. Instead of proposing another tax-and-spend plan, it's time for Democrats to support these necessary spending reforms." House Republicans remain committed to decreasing the federal deficit: Under Republican leadership, the budget deficit shrank last year from $412 billion to $319 billion—more than a 22% decrease.Non-defense non-Homeland domestic discretionary spending in the House is on track to be below last year's levels—for the first time since the Reagan Administration.House Republicans have passed legislation that seeks to find at least $35 billion in savings from mandatory programs for the first time since 1997.House Republicans have recommended zeroing-out funding for 98 federal programs that are wasteful, duplicative, or out-of-date. These cuts will save taxpayers $4.3 billion.Under Republican guidance, the House refused to fund over a dozen new programs this year.For the first time since 1994, the Congress will temporarily fund government operations at the lowest level until Congress completes work on the budget process.Last year, Congress held growth in non-security discretionary spending to 1.4%—well below inflation and a significant reduction from the previous 5-year average growth rate of 6.3%.####