Judd Gregg: “as we worked through the Budget last year, one of the main dilemmas confronting us as a government was clearly the…”

“as we worked through the Budget last year, one of the main dilemmas confronting us as a government was clearly the unsustainably high levels of entitlement spending now and in the future. This spending in the not too distant future will crowd out the Government's ability to do much more than merely pay the costs of the entitlement programs themselves. Eventually, it will rob us of the ability to fund most essential discretionary Federal programs. So layering on new payments and programs, which claimants in time will come to expect as another entitlement from the Federal Government rather than the private sector, will threaten the Nation's economy with even more damage from too much Government borrowing and high tax burdens. I, too, am concerned about the immense hardship that the asbestos litigation explosion has imposed on our economy for more than a decade now. The immense volume of litigation from occupational exposure to asbestos has already bankrupted numerous companies, large and small. The greatest harm from the litigation is that genuinely and critically sick individuals cannot get their day in court--and the financial help they desperately need--because the court system is overwhelmed by asbestos claims from tens of thousands of individuals who are not even sick yet, and may never be sick. Moreover, a disproportionate amount of victim compensation is being siphoned off in attorney fees.…”