Speeches

My amendment takes all the policy reforms in the budget resolution and writes those savings into the reconciliation instructions. This does not change a single recommendation that we have been debating. It simply implements them – about $3.55 trillion over ten years after removing interest payments and non-reconcilable items under the Byrd Rule.

Farm subsidies – essentially taking money from taxpayers to inflate the price of their groceries – was never a good idea. They are the poster children of corporate welfare. After all, the vast proportion of them go to large corporations – not small family farms.

This amendment does two things. It increases from 20 percent to 70 percent the percentage of able bodied adults in SNAP who would be required to comply with the work requirements in the bill. And it requires the use of the e-verify system to assure that job training is provided only to those legally residing in this country and entitled to work here.

A recent editorial in the Modesto Bee ridicules the “naming” bills that I have authored, especially the naming of a mountain in the Sierra as “Sky Point.” Each of these laws honors young men from our district who died in combat. “Sky Point” was named in honor of Marine Staff Sergeant Sky Mote who died defending his station in Afghanistan in 2012.

I don’t claim to be an expert in the intricacies of the Byzantine web of price supports, insurance subsidies, commodity rules, Agriculture Risk Coverage, Price Loss Coverage, Marketing loans, disaster aid and all the other components of the mess we’ve made of our agricultural markets. What I do know is this. Prices, if left alone, convey a wealth of information upon which consumers depend to make rational decisions. Those rational decisions, in turn, direct all production to the greatest need and all investment to its highest possible use.

I have offered this amendment whenever the opportunity has presented itself, because it tests whether there is any program in the federal budget that Congress can bear to cut.

In December, we adopted one of the most important tax reform laws in our nation’s history. It is producing higher wages, better job opportunities, and greater economic expansion than we’ve seen in a decade. But having cut taxes, we assumed an urgent responsibility to restrain spending. Taxes and debt are two sides of the same coin. A debt is simply a future tax. Once we’ve spent a dollar, we’ve already decided to tax it, either now or in the future. It’s the spending that’s the problem.