Jeb Hensarling: “I rise today as cofounder of the Washington Waste Watchers, a Republican working group dedicated to bringing the…”

“I rise today as cofounder of the Washington Waste Watchers, a Republican working group dedicated to bringing the disinfectant of sunshine into the shadowy corners of the wasteful Washington bureaucracy. As we speak, Congress is engaged in a debate over spending and the Federal budget. With a historically large deficit, Democrats are advocating that our answer is to raise taxes on American families. Democrats demand that we roll back tax relief, the tax relief that is responsible for the strong growth in our economy, the tax relief that is bringing down unemployment, the tax relief that amounts to only 1 percent, 1 percent, of the $28.3 trillion, 10-year spending plan that we passed last year. In other words, Mr. Speaker, 99 percent of the challenge in dealing with our Federal deficit is on the spending side. Clearly we have a spending problem, not a taxing problem in America; and I, for one, say when it comes to Federal spending, it is time to take out the trash. It is time to go after the costly waste, fraud and abuse that permeates every nook and cranny of the Federal Government. Mr. Speaker, this body will soon take up the issue of transportation funding. Transportation is important. It is important to our economy; it is important to jobs. But before we sign a huge check drawn on the bank account of American families, should we not do everything that we can to ensure that every dime of transportation funding goes to roads, and not rip-offs?”