Tom Feeney: “I am delighted to rise tonight and join the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hensarling) and the gentleman from Florida (Mr.…”

“I am delighted to rise tonight and join the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hensarling) and the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mario Diaz-Balart) as we have established the Washington Waste Watchers. Ronald Reagan once defined the American taxpayer as somebody who works for the Federal Government but does not have to take the civil service exam. Unfortunately, he was far too correct. According to Americans for Tax Reform, the average American family has to spend 193 days working to pay their total cost of government: Federal, State and local taxes and the regulatory burden. 130 of those 193 days are the cost of funding the Federal Government. Imagine working 193 days for the average American. That is more than half the year by far. It is time that our families were able to spend most of their time working for their families and themselves and not for the Federal Government, the Federal bureaucracy. We are facing a time of a dramatically expanding new deficit. We understand the need on homeland security. We understand the aftermath of September 11. We understand the need to support our troops over in Iraq. But the bottom line is that, here at home, we have a lot of spending that is simply out of control. The best place to attack this spending, in our view, in the Washington Waste Watchers Caucus, is to go after wasteful spending, is to look at programs that simply are not being well run, are not efficient or are meaningless altogether.”