As children we are taught to be responsible with our money.  We are taught to spend what we earn very carefully and not to waste our earnings on frivolous things.  The government should be held to the same standard that we as Americans hold ourselves to when it comes to responsible stewardship of our hard-earned money.  Despite promising to make fiscal responsibility a hallmark of the 110th Congress, Speaker Pelosi and the new Majority in Congress recently passed a budget that not only calls for the largest tax increase in history, which I addressed last week, but also does nothing to significantly reform entitlement programs and irresponsibly proposes tens of billions of dollars in massive new non-defense, non-emergency spending.

On top of the massive tax hike, the Majority's budget fails to adequately address runaway entitlement spending.  Despite repeated warnings that government entitlement programs must be reformed in order to be preserved, the Majority's budget deliberately puts off reform for at least 5 years.

According to the Committee on the Budget, even with the new tax increases, federal spending at its current rate will outpace federal revenue by steadily increasing amounts over the next several decades.  This problem is mainly due to the federal government's entitlement programs, which are growing at an average 6 percent per year-twice as fast as inflation, and faster than the overall economy.

Among the largest of these entitlement programs are Medicare and Medicaid, which are growing 7 to 8 percent per year.  Even if the budget were balanced today, these two programs alone would quickly drive it right back into deficit.  By 2040, three entitlement programs-Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid will consume 20 percent of the nation's economy.  That is equivalent to the cost of the entire federal government today, and it will take twice the current rate of taxes just to maintain the current level of entitlement benefits.  Without reform, these programs will consume 62 percent of the entire federal budget in less than a decade, and they will keep growing until they crowd out all other spending-including education, science, the environment, agriculture, and even homeland security and defense.

Ronald Reagan put it best when he said, "Governments tend not to solve problems, only to rearrange them."  The new Majority in Congress has proposed nothing to solve the problems that are facing our economy.  In fact, they blatantly ignore them.  This budget will result in runaway entitlement spending that will send our country spinning into a financial and economic crisis.  As your Representative in Congress, I will be working hard to support good policy that reflects our Oklahoma values, not those represented by the tax and spend budget put forth by the liberal tax and spend crowd at the Capitol.

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