| Senator Mark Kirk |
January 24, 2012 |
|
John Thune, R-SD
|
|
"With regard to the other part of the budget, the discretionary part, we saw spending increase in that part of our budget by about 24 percent between 2008 and 2010. It literally grew at about 8 to 10 times the rate of inflation. So we need to get that side of our spending under control as well. Many of us supported legislative efforts that would roll back discretionary spending to 2008 levels to get us back into a place where we can defend the things we are doing to the American people at a time when they are seeing their family budgets shrink, that they are seeing their personal assets shrink, and many of them are having a very hard time finding work. Cutting spending, reducing spending, reforming entitlement programs, getting our fiscal house in order, is just essential, absolutely essential if we want to put our country on a path and a track that will prevent us from heading for the train wreck that many of our allies, many of the countries in Europe, are facing right now simply because they made promises to their people they just could not keep."
|
|
| Make Federal Government Live Within Its Means |
January 18, 2012 |
|
Timothy Walberg, R-MI
|
|
"When we took office last January, we vowed to reduce discretionary spending to 2008 levels, and we delivered. The House passed a bill to reduce spending by $5.8 trillion over the next 10 years. We also voted to cut over 100 programs across government and save billions of dollars in the process. In May, the House also overwhelmingly voted against giving President Obama a blank check to increase the debt limit without spending reductions or reforms."
|
|
| Cost Of College Smothering Opportunity |
November 30, 2011 |
|
Joe Courtney, D-CT
|
|
"What did this Republican Congress do? We had a Ryan budget last April which gutted and butchered the Pell Grant program and would take us back to 2008 levels. So, for example, in Connecticut, where I come from, the University of Connecticut would have seen its Pell Grant revenue from 2008, which was about $8 million going into the University of Connecticut, it would have been cut from where it is today, which is $12 million of annual Pell Grant revenue—a $4 million cut to the University of Connecticut. And the grant level for students, the maximum award, would have been cut from $4,500 a year down to roughly about $3,000 a year. That is closing the doors of opportunity to millions of Americans. That’s what the Ryan budget values and that’s what its vision was at a time when, again, our country is in crisis in terms of needing skilled, qualified workers to deal with the future challenge."
|
|
| We Need A Balanced Budget Amendment |
November 15, 2011 |
|
Louie Gohmert, R-TX
|
|
"I mean, good grief. It would seem that since this body, under control of Speaker Pelosi for 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, that we had spent more money than in history, that we could at least go before the big Wall Street bailout, October of 2008, we could at least go back to 2007 spending. That was spending that was created by the liberal Congress headed by Speaker Pelosi. Surely we could go back to 2007 before we added an extra trillion dollars and then President Obama added a trillion dollars, and then we keep adding that extra trillion dollars that we didn’t spend in 2007 and actually wasn’t spent until fiscal year 2009 because it was so late in 2008. We’d already passed October 1. We’re in 2009 spending. Why couldn’t we go back to 2008 levels of spending before we added an extra trillion, before this President ran up spending to about $1.5 trillion more than we were bringing in in receipts?"
|
|
| Surface And Air Transportation Programs Extension Act Of 2011 |
September 15, 2011 |
|
Rand Paul, R-KY
|
|
"My second amendment is to the FAA bill. This amendment says spending in the FAA bill go to 2008 levels. Since 2008, spending in our government has gone up 25 percent. We are mounting a deficit of $1.5 trillion. Our Nation’s debt is $14 trillion. There are significant ramifications to incurring so much debt."
|
|