James Barrett: “Mr. Chairman, our friends on the other side have complained that I guess we Republicans don't know what fiscal…”

“Mr. Chairman, our friends on the other side have complained that I guess we Republicans don't know what fiscal mismanagement is. What does it mean? I guess our Democrats, by their actions this year, especially looking at this budget, I think that fiscal mismanagement means that we are not spending enough. Apparently, if the Republicans had spent more money on everything, including everything in this budget, everything would be perfect, but we certainly know that is not the case. The Democrats seem to think that the IRS tax collectors just need to bring in more money. But let me tell you exactly what has happened. Collections over the past year are up $2.5 trillion. That figure keeps going up every year. We are collecting more tax revenue, as a share of the economy, more than the average over the past 40 years. So I guess they are telling me it is not enough. According to the Democrats, there is still too much uncollected tax revenue out there. So their budget, like the budget in the Senate that was produced last week, calls for the IRS to make up the difference trying to close this magical tax gap.”