Jim Jordan: “Members of the House, government spends too much money. Ask any American family, is government so lean, so efficient…”

“Members of the House, government spends too much money. Ask any American family, is government so lean, so efficient, has it tightened its belt so much that it just can't cut anymore, it has to spend what this bill purports to spend and wants to spend? And if you ask a typical American family that, you're going to get an overwhelmingly, No, government is too big; it spends too much. And if you don't believe the American people and American families, look at the numbers. We have a $3 trillion budget we're dealing with here. We have an $8 trillion national debt. The government spends $23,000 per American household. We have an entitlement crisis that everybody knows is going to happen here in the next 10 to 15 years when you think about what we face in Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. And then this bill grows, over last year's spending level, 2 rac{1}{2} times the rate of inflation, 5.9 percent increase over last year, $1 billion increase in spending over what we did last year. My amendment is real simple. Frankly, it's the same amendment I've offered, now this is the ninth time. All non-defense related appropriations bills we have offered this amendment to, and the amendment is real simple. It says we're not going to cut anything; we're just going to spend what we spent last year. A pretty modest first step in beginning to get a handle on the spending that is out of control with the Federal Government.”