Fixing the U.S. Budget Process

At what point do we admit that federal spending is out of control? The amount government spends annually per household has risen from $18,000 in 2000 to $20,500 in 2004 – an increase of 13% and the largest five-year expansion of the government since the Vietnam era. This marks only the fourth time in U.S. history that federal spending has exceeded $20,000 per household.

This spending binge did not start yesterday. The federal budget has been growing seven times faster than the family budget over the past two generations. In other words, the greatest assault on the family budget is the unrestrained growth of the federal budget.

The Family Budget Protection Act stops the hemorrhaging. (1) It converts the current budget process from a mere suggestion to a simple and legally binding budget. (2) It puts a lid on the federal budget by placing ceilings on discretionary and mandatory spending. (3) It places a premium on reducing spending without cutting needed services, by combating waste, fraud, and abuse through sunsetting. And finally, (4) it forces us to honestly account for our long-term funding obligations.

Although there is no substitute for our collective courage when considering specific spending proposals, the Family Budget Protection Act will prove a powerful and essential tool for ensuring fiscal discipline by transforming a system rigged to spend more at the expense of the American family. It is critical that our efforts this year be marked not only by a responsible FY06 budget but by sensible reforms of our pro-spending budgeting process. Without such reforms, it will be impossible to restrain federal spending. Please co-sponsor this important legislation, and help us protect the family budget from the federal budget. As President Reagan once said, “If not us, who? If not now, when?”

Yours respectfully,

JEB HENSARLING
Member of Congress

PAUL RYAN
Member of Congress

CHRIS CHOCOLA
Member of Congress

CHRISTOPHER COX
Member of Congress