Thursday, March 31, 2011

Isakson: Congress Angering American Families, Endangering America's Economic Standing By Failing to Rein in Spending, Lower Debt

'If We Continue to Dilly-dally Around Trying to Make Political Headway … We're Going to Have Higher Inflation, Higher Interest Rates, and We're Going to Devalue the Assets of the American People. Worst of All, We're Going to Lose Our Place in the World'

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., today said Congress will cause America to lose its economic standing if it fails to begin immediately making the tough choices and financial sacrifices that American families have been making for several years.

In a speech on the Senate floor, Isakson, who spent more than three decades running a small business in Georgia, said families in Georgia and across the country are dismayed by the continued reckless spending of their tax dollars in Washington.

"The people of Georgia really don't understand why we can't do in Washington, what they have had to do during the last three years," said Isakson. "During the economic travails of the last few years, every American family has had to sit around their kitchen table, re-prioritize how they spend their money, deal with lower returns on their investments... they have had to adapt to difficult economic times. Yet, when they turn on the television and they look at C-SPAN, they don't see us adapting to the economic times we find ourselves in as a country."

Isakson has focused his legislative efforts during the 112th Congress on trying to rein in federal spending, reduce the debt and change the way Washington does business in terms of the regulation and taxation of America's families and small businesses.

Isakson noted that he has introduced S.211, the Biennial Budgeting and Appropriations Act, with U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., to convert Congress' annual spending process to a two-year cycle, with one year for appropriating federal dollars and the other year devoted to oversight of federal programs. This legislation, which has 19 cosponsors, is aimed at forcing Congress to become better stewards of the taxpayers' money, thereby reducing reckless and wasteful spending.

"Most of my years in Congress more dollars have been appropriated through omnibus appropriations than through legitimate debate of budget units on the floor," Isakson stated. "We didn't do any last year. The reason we're doing a C.R. [Continuing Resolution] this year, on last year, is because it was an omnibus appropriation. We're not spending our money like the American people have to spend theirs. We're not prioritizing. We're not looking at cost-benefit analysis. We've got to change our system."

Isakson also said he believes that entitlement spending must be a part of any reform discussion and he has suggested a change in the eligibility age for receiving Social Security benefits.

"Instead of taking entitlements off of the table, they ought to be part of the discussion… we ought to say we'll look at everything and prioritize based on cost and benefit…"

Isakson pointed out that reforming our spending process would not only set our country on a positive path to reducing our debt and deficit over time, but send a necessary signal to the world market that the America they invested in is going to be stronger in the future.

"If we continue to dilly-dally around trying to make political headway out of economic events and push ourselves out on debt and deficit, we're going to have higher inflation, higher interest rates, and we're doing to devalue the assets of the American people. Worst of all, we're going to lose our place in the world. I don't want to be a part of that."