Rep. Walberg: Spending, Not Revenue, Is Our Problem
Tuesday, 03 Feb 2015 03:47 PM
By Sean Piccoli
With "record levels of revenue coming in" to the federal government through taxes, Washington has more than enough money on hand, and it's Congress that will have to set priorities and cut out the rest because the White House apparently won't, a Republican lawmaker told Newsmax TV on Tuesday.
So if President Barack Obama insists on pushing his $4 trillion budget proposal, which many observers already have dismissed as a Democratic wish list, "he will get pretty much what he's gotten so far, and that's a very divided government," Rep. Tim Walberg of Michigan told "MidPoint" host Ed Berliner.
"I don't think that's what the House and Senate want to do now," said Walberg, who was elected to Congress in 2006, aligned himself with the tea party after it appeared in 2010, and serves on two committees: Education and the Workforce; and Oversight and Government Reform.
With Republicans now controlling both chambers, Walberg promised "a stunning difference in our approach to governing and spending" and to "the size, shape and scope of government."
He said the House, with the power of the purse, will use the appropriations process to write budgets that can pass the Senate and force decisions on the president, who for years was spared tough choices thanks to then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid tabling legislation approved by the House.
One such bill is the Taxpayers Right to Know Act, which passed the House in 2014 and died in the Democrat-controlled Senate, but is coming back in the new Congress, said Walberg.
"It requires our agencies, our departments, to be accountable in making transparent records of what they're doing with the dollars they've been given," said Walberg, a co-sponsor of the legislation. "In every agency, every program, every department, they have to not only tell what the purpose is but also outcome, so that the taxpayer can see in real time the impact of what they're paying for."
Walberg predicted that if the act becomes law and the federal bureaucracy has to operate accordingly, over time "we're going to find entire programs that show no improvement at all," and they will be easier to eliminate in favor of priorities — such as defense and infrastructure — where a federal role makes sense.
"It is absolutely true that we do not have a revenue problem in Washington," said Walberg. "We have a spending problem."
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Walberg also discussed the furor over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu planning to address Congress despite White House objections.
He said he will be "delighted to hear Bibi Netanyahu speak to Congress. We'll hear a person with moral clarity. That's what we need a good dose of in this country again."
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