Mark Souder: “I will hope that many, as some have on the Democratic side who say that they are for balancing the budget, will vote…”

“I will hope that many, as some have on the Democratic side who say that they are for balancing the budget, will vote with those of us who have been trying to promote the 1.9 percent, because a 1.9 percent reduction on every appropriations bill will fix the bump up. It is a small bump up. We have been moving in the right direction, but the fact is the deficit goes up the second year we are here in Congress. As far as the IRS, I understand that you need to have dollars to correct it. I understand that. We are saying that if we prioritize correctly, for example, in addition to the supplemental appropriations for church burning investigations, ATF, the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, remained funded at the same level. I find it hard to believe that they cannot carry out their function at a 1.9 percent reduction. We could take more of that if there was a prioritization correctly. Also the same is true of the White House. They were able to give a 40 percent raise to someone like former security director Craig Livingstone, who had no apparent qualifications for that position, according to a committee hearing we were just in. They could absorb a 1.9 percent reduction. They have multiple pastry chefs at the White House, as well as the taxpayer funded database that we have been concerned about and concerned about the security systems.”