James Barrett: “as we know, the policies we've put in place to support economic growth are working. But in addition to getting and…”

“as we know, the policies we've put in place to support economic growth are working. But in addition to getting and keeping the economy going, we must also control spending. It matters. If you're going to say that deficits matter, you'd better believe that spending matters. All spending must be paid for, either through taxes or borrowing--and both are burdens on the economy. And for that simple reason alone, controlling spending is itself a policy for sustaining stronger economic growth. This budget calls for several measures to help us get our hands around what has become an unsustainable rate of spending growth. This includes holding the line on all nondefense, nonhomeland security spending. As Chairman Nussle mentioned earlier, this won't be easy. Many of us here in Congress have gotten pretty comfortable signing off on huge spending increases, and free-flowing new spending. But success at keeping taxes and spending down will mean a stronger economy and better standards of living for our Nation. If we don't control spending the result will be higher borrowing or higher taxes. Federal Reserve Chairman Greenspan has agreed that we need to control spending, not raise taxes, if we want to make sure that we don't harm our economy and our standards of living. Here is his quote: Tax rate increases of sufficient dimension to deal with our looming fiscal problems arguably pose significant risks to economic growth and the revenue base.…”