Joe Pitts, November 18, 2005

This week, the House plans to take up the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 as part of the Republican majority’s effort to rein in federal spending and put our fiscal house in order.

This attempt by Republicans to exercise fiscal responsibility has thrust the issue of spending into the spotlight on Capitol Hill. Democrats have expressed stiff opposition, and mischaracterizations of the legislation have been plentiful.

With heated rhetoric surrounding the issue, it is important to do two things. First, the record must be set straight about what this bill does and doesn’t do. Second, we need to be reminded of the priority-setting role that Members of Congress must play in tough budgetary times.

Despite what many in opposition to the bill are saying, the Deficit Reduction Act does not enact enormous cuts to a broad range of programs for America’s elderly, disabled, and disadvantaged.

What this bill does do, however, is slow the unsustainable rate of growth for our federal mandatory programs. These enormously expensive entitlement programs currently consume over half of all federal spending each year and are set by law to continue growing at a fixed rate.

A look at the government’s balance sheet reveals that the current rate of growth for these programs is fiscally unsustainable. Faced with this problem, Congress has three options: raise taxes, increase the national debt, or slow the rate of growth in spending.

Republicans in Congress are wisely choosing to reform spending.

But spending reform does not mean drastic spending cuts, as many Democrats suggest. Let’s be clear: Though many Democrats claim this legislation will slash spending for the underprivileged, federal mandatory spending is still slated to grow under this bill, just at a slower, more responsible pace. This bill represents meaningful restraint in the growth of spending, not radical program slashing.

The other thing we must remember in this debate is that Congress operates in an environment where demands are limitless and resources are limited.

Ronald Reagan once noted that facts are stubborn things. He was right. And perhaps the most stubborn fact facing Members of Congress is that we have been sent to Washington to make tough choices and set priorities.

It is easy for today’s leaders to take a pass on making the tough spending choices and simply pass our fiscal irresponsibility on to future generations in the form of an enormous debt or tax load.

It is difficult to summon the fortitude to make the tough choices and set fiscally realistic priorities today, so that our children and grandchildren aren’t handed a fiscal time bomb tomorrow.

This is tough work, but we must do it.

We have to be realistic about what we can and cannot do in a time when our resources are already committed to multiple major undertakings.

Since September 11, 2001, America has been fully engaged in the global war on terror. The cost of winning this fight is certainly high, but the cost of losing would be incalculable. From the streets of Baghdad to the mountains of Afghanistan, and everywhere else our military fights our terrorist enemies, this Congress has provided, and must continue providing, whatever is necessary to win this war.

Congress has also committed to overcoming large-scale domestic catastrophe. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita resulted in nothing less than the complete inundation of a major U.S. city and 90,000 square miles of our Gulf Coast being declared a disaster area.

To date, Congress has appropriated more than $60 billion in emergency relief funding to rebuild the devastated areas, with more likely to come in the future.

These efforts and a host of others are worthy undertakings, but we must address them within the context of responsible fiscal policy. That is what the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 seeks to do, and that is why it has my support in Congress.

Congressman Joe Pitts, a Republican, represents Pennsylvania's 16th Congressional District, which includes Lancaster County and parts of Chester County and Berks County.