Pete Sessions: “I will close with one more point. A number of years ago, I understood this when the Republicans did what I considered a…”

“I will close with one more point. A number of years ago, I understood this when the Republicans did what I considered a budget gimmick of several billion dollars. I began to count up how that added up. This year this budget has about $18 billion in spending over the President's budget, 2 billion of which is a gimmick. I believe it is going to amount to advance funding and will be spent. I believe, without dispute, it is $18 billion over the President's budget. Somebody might say: This is a large economy. What is $18 billion? That is what I used to hear. I made up a chart that I call 'Every Billion Counts.' A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon it is real money. Look at this chart. They say: Well, we only jumped the President by $18 billion. This is in the discretionary accounts. This is the discretionary budget. They jump it just $18 billion in 2008. But what happens to that $18 billion? It goes into the baseline of our Government spending. It goes into the baseline of our Government spending. So next year, if you try to remove that $18 billion, you know what they will say. They will descend on us in the halls, they will descend on us in this body and say: You are slashing the budget. You are cutting the budget. You can never cut the budget. So it goes into the baseline. Let's say we just continue at that rate. Let's say next year, they just do another $18 billion.…”