Last month, I detailed in an email that Congress is considering a proposal that would expose taxpayers to $300 billion of risk to refinance the mortgages of Americans near foreclosure, regardless of the reason they are facing foreclosure.  Many of you responded and expressed your concerns.  I have read your personal stories, visited with Dallas residents during tele-town hall meetings, and met with constituents who voiced their opposition to a bill that would force taxpayers to bear the burden of irresponsible borrowing.  Anticipating a tough battle, I attempted to make this bill more fiscally responsible by offering several amendments that would relieve some of the burden from hard-working tax payers.  Despite my opposition to this bill, it passed through the Financial Services Committee and the House approved it last week.

While I empathize with individuals and families facing foreclosure, this is not the correct response to the situation.  Washington proposed that Texas taxpayers should pay for the mistakes of people who took out a second mortgage on their home to finance a lifestyle they could not afford, lied about their income on a loan application, or chose to borrow too much to speculate on investment properties.  Such a bailout would reward the risky behavior of some speculators and the lenders who wrongly subsidized their behavior.
This proposal will do nothing but provide short-term gain for a few and long-term pain for many.  The responsible way to address this situation is not to place even more taxpayers at risk by forcing them to pay for the mistake of a few.  But rather, we should focus on forestalling the huge tax increases included in the 2009 budget, creating stability in the market, and passing the Economic Growth Act of 2008, which would lower capital gains tax rates and add liquidity to the market. 
Reforming the Earmark Process
It has not been an easy fight and it is far from over, but reformers in Congress won a small victory in the battle against congressional earmarks when the House considered the Beach Protection Act (H.R. 2537).  My colleague, Congressman Jeff Flake (AZ-06), proposed an amendment that would prohibit the use of funding authorized under this bill from being used for earmarks.  This amendment passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. Such a victory was considered unlikely less than a year ago.
This bill comes on the heels of a Republican budget that called for a one-year moratorium on earmarks to restore accountability to a broken process by eliminating this wasteful spending until Congress develops a fair and transparent process.  The earmark process is broken.  All too often, the process represents the triumph of secrecy over transparency, the special interest over the national interest, and seniority over merit.
Earmarks are special funding requests that go to benefit individual members of Congress pet projects in their respective districts—projects like the Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska and the teapot museum in North Carolina. 
In 2006, Congress spent almost $30 billion on earmarks.  This is more than the VA spent on veterans’ health care and medical research combined.  To put it in even better perspective, it is enough to fund the annual Social Security benefits of almost 3 million of our fellow Texas seniors.  To demonstrate my commitment to fiscally responsibility, I have offered amendments to strike over $6.5 million dollars in pork barrel spending from bills in the 110th Congress alone. 
All too often the American people see campaign cash coming in one end of the nation’s capitol and special interest earmarks coming out the other.  Last year, almost 10,000 earmarks were tucked away into the final spending bill to fund wasteful projects, such as pizza parlors in Ohio, monuments to a sitting Member of Congress in New York, and the Mule Packers Museum in California.
We cannot continue to allow Washington to spend recklessly while Texans are tightening their belts to fill up their gas tanks and send their children to college.  We have to control outrageous and unnecessary spending particularly during tough economic times.  We have to pass along a future of more freedom and unlimited opportunity to our children and grandchildren tomorrow.

Comments (6)

Comment	smaller | bigger
Name
Write the displayed characters
Subscribe via email (Registered users only) I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage.
	Add Comment