Remember, We Pay the Bills

Late last week the House of Representatives did what the whole Congress should have done a year ago. The House voted to make the Bush tax cut permanent. The House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt (D-MO), who opposed the tax cuts, and of course, opposed making them permanent, says he wants to make this vote an election issue. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD), made clear the issue would never come to a vote in the Senate.

I have yet to hear any politician give an adequate explanation as to why the tax cuts cannot be made permanent. The sound-bite explanation is always, “we can’t afford it.” As a taxpayer, and as president of an organization that fights for less government, lower taxes and more freedom, let me say clearly – America can afford to make the tax cuts permanent. Congress simply needs to spend less money.

Congress is in the midst of the greatest expansion of federal spending since the days of the Great Society. It has gotten so bad, that the Senate Appropriations Committee has provided a computerized form to streamline the pork process for each Senate office. The Senator gets to name his project and plug-in the amount of taxpayer dollars he or she wants spent on their pet project. As Stephen Hayes writes in the current issue of the Weekly Standard, “Legislators apparently feel no need to hide what was once understood as a shady practice.”

Rather than wasting my money on federally funded car-racing museums, soccer fields, or any other pork project in the Appropriations bills this year – I have a personal pork request – spend the money on making the tax cut permanent. Not only is it my money, it is also a much more productive use of my resources.

Next, Congress should revisit transportation spending. It’s at a record level because the former Republican congressman, Bud Shuster played the pork barrel game as well as any legislator in modern history. He created the largest committee in Congress – can anybody provide a reasonable explanation why the Transportation Committee needs more Members than any other committee? Shuster grew the size of his committee because he knew that was the easiest way to grow the size of his transportation budget. No question traffic is a big problem. But I haven’t noticed an improvement in traffic since the Shuster spending binge began in 1999. And that’s because there was no grand strategy or vision in his bill – other than to make it as big as possible. Congress is simply wasting an enormous amount of money on transportation pork. That money can be used to make the tax cut permanent.

Congress must revisit the hastily passed airport security legislation, because its clear now the legislation is unworkable and incredibly expensive. Yes, airport security is very important and the American people are willing to invest in it. But we’re not willing to waste money on poor legislation in the name of airport security. The Transportation Security Administration wants an additional $4.4 billion and says it needs to hire double the number of federal workers to meet the deadlines imposed by Congress. Yet, many of the specific goals i.e. screening bags, could be accomplished by investing in emerging technologies. If Congress revisits this legislation, we can have improved security and save billions that can be used to make the tax cuts permanent.

Health care costs are rising again. This puts added pressure on the federal budget because both Medicare and Medicaid costs are rising at a rapid rate. As a taxpayer, I would think now is the right time for fundamental Medicare reform, which has been needed for well over a decade. By opening up the system to choice and competition, Medicare costs could be controlled, while providing a higher level of service for senior citizens. Instead, reports indicate that in an election year, Congress is more likely to add a new prescription drug benefit on to the old, broken Medicare system. In other words, Congress is preparing to ADD to Medicare’s costs before Congress addresses Medicare’s spiraling cost increases. If that’s a reason why we can’t afford to make the tax cut permanent, it’s not a very good reason. It’s bad public policy.

Congress will go on doing this until taxpayers make them stop. As a politician, it is much easier and a lot more fun to increase spending rather than to try and cut it. Taxpayers need to get angry and we need to get organized so we can put the brakes on free-spending politicians. We can begin the process by asking our elected officials for a rational explanation as to why America can’t afford to make the tax cuts permanent. We haven’t heard one yet.