Jim Matheson

Mr. MATHESON

Mr. MATHESON. Mr. Speaker, I want to say to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Boyd), it is a pleasure to be here today to talk about the importance of fiscal responsibility. Mr. Speaker, I would like to tell the gentleman that when it comes to this type of issue, I am true to my Scottish heritage when it comes to money, especially the people's money. I do not like deficits, and I do not like debt. It means that we live within our means. I come from the State of Utah. I feel the way a lot of my constituents feel. We conduct our lives in a way where we live within a budget. We try to face the future in a way where we pay down our debts when we have the opportunity to do so, and we try to plan for the future and invest in the future to make the world a better place for our children. That is the type of attitude I think we ought to have as we approach this budget issue here in Congress, and that is why I am so proud to be associated with the Blue Dog coalition. The Blue Dogs was first introduced to me when I was a candidate, and we sat down and we shared our thoughts about budget issues, about our desire to pay down the debt. Issues that make sense to me. Common sense solutions. The Blue Dogs have a reputation of being up front with people about telling the truth, about trying to cut through a lot of the rhetoric that we have in terms of addressing such important issues. That is why I am proud to be here today with my fellow Blue Dogs to talk about these issues. I think as we look at this issue, it is important that we have the right perspective. I have learned in my life as a businessman and in my personal life that it is very easy to get caught up in the short term day-to-day pressures and emotions of the moment, and that dominates your perspective. And, yet, we all recognize the benefit of taking a step back and taking the longer view when we make decisions. We make better decisions when we do that; that same applies to Congress. I think too often we have a short-term perspective here. People look out to the next election when they make decisions. We should not be driven by the next election. When we are making decisions, we should be looking at the next generation in how we make decisions on these important issues of maintaining fiscal responsibility, that is the perspective that I would like to have brought before this whole House of Congress. Let us make it clear there will be tax cuts this year. I have certainly campaigned on the notion of tax cuts in terms of addressing the marriage penalty and estate tax issues, and I think there is great support within Congress to pursue that type of tax cut. As we move forward in this tax cut discussion, I would offer a quick list of five items that should be considered, common sense considerations, that ought to be included in any discussion of these issues. The first is that let us be up front about the nature of these budget projections. We ought to be skeptical about this. We are talking about a 10-year projection, and what is interesting is over 70 percent of the projected surplus takes place in the second 5 years. Does it really make sense for us today to make a commitment assuming that is going to happen then? What is the rush to make that decision today? The responsible thing to do is to live within our means, do what we can to try to have our economy grow. And we hope that surplus occurs. We should all do what we can to make that occur, but let us be skeptical about the notion that this surplus is definitely going to happen. I am a businessman. I have dealt with projections before. When we make projections of the future, the one thing we know, the minute we write it down on the paper is it is probably going to be wrong, so we ought to be cautious and we ought to be smart about that. But let me talk about a future prediction where we can be certain, that is the second consideration we ought to keep in mind. The second prediction about the future is that we are going to have a whole bunch of baby boomers starting to retire in about 10 years, so wherever the economy goes, we know, in terms of the demographics of our country, we are going do have a lot more people moving into the retirement phase of their lives, and that is going to place far more pressure on Social Security and Medicare. We have the opportunity now, while times are good, to address that issue. Let us not squander the prosperity we have today with short-term thinking. Let us take that longer view when it comes to Social Security and Medicare. A third issue I will mention, a consideration we ought to think about as we look at these tax cuts. Most of us have put together a budget in our lives. Those of us in the business world have done that a lot. Everybody has probably done it for their own household, and when we look at a budget, simply stated, you look at money in and you look at money out. You have revenues and you have expenses, and you match them up, and you figure out what makes sense. Right now we are only looking at half of that equation. How can we, as an institution, make informed decisions about tax cuts which affect the revenue side without also understanding how it fits with projected expenses? I say that if we are going to behave in a responsible manner, it is important to look at the whole budget before we make decisions. Fourth, the issue we ought to remember is let us recognize the true cost of any tax cut. The projections we have right now about the surplus are based on nothing happening, on taxes staying the way they are now. If we do have that surplus, the assumptions in these projections are that we are going to pay down our debt. As we pay down the debt, we lower government spending on interest on that debt. If we are going to cut taxes, there is going to be a corresponding increase in government spending because we are not going to be paying down the debt as fast and there is more of an interest expense. We are going to pursue tax cuts, but as we talk about it, let us be honest. Let us talk about the full cost of any tax cut that we pass in Congress. There is a cost in terms of increased interest because the debt will not be paid down as fast. A fifth point that is a consideration, as we look at tax cuts is the notion that paying down the debt creates so many benefits, so many benefits in the short term, so many benefits in the long term. We bring down interest rates. That is good. We give ourselves greater flexibility if we remove that as part of government spending. Right now interest is the third highest expenditure of the Federal government behind Social Security and defense. We all like the notion of trying to cut government spending. This is an easy one. All we have to do is show some discipline, pay down our debt and lower expenditures on interest. That makes sense to me. I think that it is important to have this discussion today as Blue Dogs, but I think it is important to have this discussion with our friends across the aisle. If we can take that longer view and set aside considerations of just the next election, there will be a better opportunity to have some bipartisan consideration and to really affect this in a positive way. We ought to have a bipartisan agreement to be fiscally responsible. I think we share a lot of values on both sides of the aisles. I am convinced that the Blue Dogs are prepared to engage in those discussions.