Adam Smith: “I rise, too, to talk about the budget that is coming to the floor this week, and I have some grave concerns about that…”

“I rise, too, to talk about the budget that is coming to the floor this week, and I have some grave concerns about that budget in terms of fiscal discipline. The budget the majority party is proposing has several elements to it. Massive tax cuts. At the same time, it also has massive spending increases. And unrelated to the budget, but at the same time related to the budget, there is no plan on the table for any sort of structural reform of our existing entitlement programs, so they will simply go on spending at their current rate. Those three items, put together, are a recipe for complete fiscal disaster. We are so close to a balanced budget, we are so close to finally having a legitimate claim on being fiscally responsible, that I hate to see us lose it now. One of the biggest problems, in response to the comments of the previous gentleman, yes, the existing trust funds, the money that is going into Social Security and Medicare, are protected. The problem is those trust funds will not last long under the current system. The spending will go way beyond those existing trust funds and place us into grave financial difficulties. Medicare is scheduled to be bankrupt in 2008. Social Security is scheduled to go bankrupt in 2032. It is time to be fiscally responsible, and the Republican budget does not get us there.”