Marsha Blackburn: “I am certain it comes as no surprise to anyone in this body that, as we go through this appropriations season, I come…”

“I am certain it comes as no surprise to anyone in this body that, as we go through this appropriations season, I come back to the floor working to make another cut to get our spending levels down. The bill we have before us, the T-HUD approps, is a $55.3 billion bill. That is discretionary funding. {time} 0915 Now, credit should go to the subcommittee chairmen and to those who have worked on this to get the spending levels down because this is $9.7 billion below the President's request. That is really quite remarkable. And my amendment, which is another 1 percent reduction--a penny out of a dollar--would save our taxpayers $598 million and would reduce the 2006 outlays by $369 million. Now, Mr. Chairman, when you look at budget authority and you look at the outlays, those are significant numbers. They are significant also, Mr. Chairman, when you look at the debt. We are $18.3 trillion in debt; and, quite frankly, I think that that is too much debt for us to ask our children and grandchildren to handle. I think it is imperative that we, as stewards of the taxpayers' money, put these issues on the table and say, ``Yes, there are great things we would like to do,'' ``Yes, there are projects that would be wonderful,'' but we have to be responsible to the taxpayers. This is not Federal money. It doesn't just grow on trees. What we have to realize is that it all comes from taxpayers. They are overtaxed.…”