Kevin Brady: “If I may continue on with that, I made a point about how good bureaucracies are playing the game up here. They are so…”

“If I may continue on with that, I made a point about how good bureaucracies are playing the game up here. They are so much better than us citizen legislators will ever be. As you know, just in my first term, I have already observed the Washington Monument defense, which is, if you have a $100 million agency, and you propose to cut one-tenth of 1 percent of their budget, they will immediately state those were the funds that we were going to use to keep the Washington Monument open. If you cut our budget, I guess we will just have to shut down the Washington Monument to America's visitors, which you know is ludicrous, but they are able to scare the American people. And sunsetting, what I like about that, is it, not only does it target obsolete agencies and prevent them from playing budget games, but it also targets duplication. We have today, just in Washington, we have 600 different programs to aid inner cities. We have 300 different programs for economic development. Just for children at risk is a good example. For children at risk, we have 116 different Federal programs administered by 13 different agencies. What are the chances a tax dollar will ever get to a child who really needs it. More importantly, what about the family that sacrifices from their children to send tax dollars to Washington to have it wasted to that extent. Sunsetting targets that type of duplication, insists on accountability.…”