I just got back from the floor.  Take a look at my speech below.  In it, I address some of the most glaring problems with the Democratic budget proposal.

Should we believe what they say or what they do? Or neither?

I am on the floor of the House right now, listening to the spirited debate.  Steny Hoyer (D-MD) the Majority Leader just spoke on the floor.  He labeled earmarks as "Congressional Investments."  Those were his exact words... I am speechless.

Below you will find a letter from U.S. Comptroller General David Walker to Congressman Culberson (R-TX).  Since 1998 Mr. Walker has been the primary auditor of the U.S. government, and this letter highlights our steadily deteriorating financial situation.

Last week the IRS announced that they want you to know that your rebate checks from the economic stimulus plan are almost in the mail.

These notices will go out to roughly 130 million households who filed returns in 2006, at a cost of $42 million. 

That is $42 million to tell you that your check is almost in the mail.  One purpose of sending these letters is to encourage people to file a return, so they can get free money from the federal government.  Given the documented potential for fraud in the tax system, this is an invitation for abuse.

Not to mention, I can think of countless ways of spending $42 million, say….paying down the deficit?

After three years of declining deficits, this plan will help increase the deficit, putting us back in the same situation we were in after 9/11.

During last week's budget debate, Republican Rodney Alexander (LA) offered 2 amendments to the budget resolution which added the Clinton and Obama socialized medicine plans to the budget. These amendments were defeated with all Democrats voting No.

Why would Republicans offer such a thing? Not because Republicans want socialized medicine, but because socialized medicine is very very expensive. Clinton and Obama use the same tax increases to pay for their government-controlled health car plans that the House and Senate Democrats are using just to pay for the general spending increases in the general budget. In other words, they are counting the same tax increases twice!

No wonder they voted No.

The budget is a mess already with Democrats proposing the largest tax increase in history even WITHOUT considering the cost of the signature socialized medicine plans of their presidential candidates. Do they want to raise taxes ever higher? They aren't saying. So you should bet on it.

Yesterday, Mark Kirk (R-IL) took a big step and joined the fight against abusive earmarks.  Rep. Kirk pledged to not request any new earmarks from this point forward. 

This is important because Mark Kirk is the first member of the Appropriations Committee to swear off pork.

With the addition of Kirk there are now 23 Members of the House and 6 Senators who have pledged not to accept earmarks. 

Congressman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) Chairman of the Republican Study Committee just offered an amendment for a one year moratorium on earmarks For the FY 2009 Budget.  It was quickly defeated along party lines. The vote was 16 ayes 21 noes, with 2 members not voting.

See below for a video of my argument in favor of the moratorium.

I just gave a speech to the Budget Committee on my thoughts on the Democrat budget proposal. 

Today’s Democratic budget is doing one thing, digging the spending hole we are already in, deeper.  All the while maintaining the illusion that that this tax-and-spend plan is somehow doing Americans a great service.

This reminds me of a commercial by a man by the name of Matthew Lesko.  This commercial was filmed right here on the west Front of the Capitol.

Mr. Lesko clearly makes a great living publishing books that tell people how to get their hands on government money.  The commercial says. “Let Matthew Lesko be your guide to join the millions each year who get Free Money, Grants, Loans, Giant Contracts and Free Assistance from the Federal Government.

Here are some of his book titles:

       Free Money for Business

       Free Money for a Better Home

       Free money to Pay your Bills…

…and my personal favorite, Free Money to Quit Your Job. But the direction perpetuated by this commercial – and once again furthered by this majority’s budget – is that the government’s money is free.  Regardless of the fancy words we use in Washington to talk about our spending – like “baseline” and “pay-as-you-go” it’s the American taxpayer who gets stuck with the bill.

The Majority’s budget is a $683 billion tax hike – the largest in our nation’s history. Mr. Lasko may think that the money is free, and many Democrats believe that the money is free. But its not. Either someone pays with more taxes now, or someone pays with debt later; and we already are paying too much of both.

I just sat down in the Budget Committee room for today’s markup and we were just handed the Democrats’ budget proposal. 

As details trickle out, it appears that this proposal will be $276 billion above the President’s level in total discretionary spending.  $22-23 billion of that is in nondefense discretionary spending above the President’s level.

This budget appears to raise taxes by $683 billion over 5 years by claiming automatic, scheduled increases in marginal rates (including elimination of 10-percent bracket), higher taxes on marriage and children, higher taxes on investments, small businesses, and estates, and other tax hikes (current record tax increase is held by the 1993 Clinton tax increase of $240.6 billion over 5 years).

And there has been no mention of entitlement reform.

These details are on top of the Budget that the President submitted several weeks ago.  I didn’t particularly like the spending level in the President’s Budget, and this is even worse.

Still no good news for you yet, but I will be sure to keep you updated as we move forward.

The Budget Committee Hearing Mark-up of the “Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2009.”  I will be spending all day tomorrow at this committee markup.

We haven’t seen the Democrat’s version of the budget, but it doesn’t promise to be good.  After 3 years of declining budget deficits, this year the deficit being proposed will more than double from last year. The new budget deficit for the 2009 fiscal year is estimated to be $410 Billion on total spending for the first time exceeding 3 Trillion dollars.

Scary thought.  I will have more on this tomorrow as the day progresses.

Tonight, Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) will be hosting a gala dinner tonight at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Pentagon City for defense industry lobbyists who have received and who hope to receive millions of dollars worth of earmarks in FY 2009 appropriations bills.

Mr. Murtha will be joined by Reps. James Moran (D-VA) and Peter Visclosky (D-IN).  All are well known for their “Earmark for a Contribution” prowess.  Last year Roll Call found that these three members funneled millions of earmarked tax dollars to firms whose executives subsequently contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to their campaign funds. 

This event has not gone unnoticed, RedState.com called initial attention to the soire, and they have now teamed up with the National Taxpayers Union, Americans for Prosperity, and Citizens Against Government Waste to hold a rally outside the event in defense of the taxpayer.

I would not be surprised if this is the first of many protests by the public who is fed up with the pork barrel politics of Washington.  

Last week, the House Republican Steering Committee decided against naming Jeff Flake (R-AZ) to the Appropriation committee. I am very disappointed to see this decision. If we are ever going to control spending in Washington, we will need to change the culture of the Appropriations Committee. Members who request to be on the Appropriations Committee usually do so because they want to spend money and that breeds a culture of spending and spenders. For example, I never wanted to be on that committee because I don't want to spend money. Neither does Jeff Flake. He wants to save money, not spend it. Jeff would probably not have been able to change much all by himself even if he had gotten the appointment. But he would have been a canary in the earmark mine shaft and it would have been a start. We would have begun the process of changing that culture to one that looks for spending to eliminate rather than earmarks to hand out.

Next year, there will be several Republican vacancies on the Appropriations Committee because of retirements. Apparently, Republican Conference leadership is not yet ready to fully embrace fiscal conservatism, the elimination of earmarks and lower spending. They will have another opportunity to change the culture in the next Congress. Maybe they will be ready then.

I hope so.

An article published in yesterday's Congressional Quarterly detailed the disparities of the current earmarking process.  I will spare you each and every minute detail, but I did feel that the research made a solid conclusion…the earmark process is not fair even if you overlook the abuses and overspending.

Acccording to the research done by CQ and Taxpayers for Common Sense, the winners of the process are almost all members of the Appropriations committee, and they tend to be boastful of their pork, no matter how egregious.  15% of House Members serve on the Appropriations Committee, yet that 15% receives 49% of the solo-sponsored earmark dollars and cosponsors 32% of shared projects.

From these numbers it seems to me that now more than ever we need to hold the Appropriations Committee accountable for its actions.  In my mind we need a change and an immediate moratorium on earmarks so that the process can be reformed to make it fair, equitable, and fiscally sound.

By now, I am sure you are well aware of the outrage that has engulfed the nation regarding Berkeley City Council’s criticism of the Marine Corps and their recruiting station in Berkeley California.

Those of you that frequently read my blog know that I have taken the lead in calling for earmark reform. The Semper Fi Act is intended to show the City of Berkeley that their actions have consequences. There is no reason for the rest of us, outside the city of Berkeley, to subsidize their imprudent actions with our taxpayer funds.

The City of Berkeley stands to lose $2 million worth of earmarks.  The most egregious is $243,000 for the organization Chez Panisse to create gourmet organic school lunches in the Berkeley School District.  Chez Panisse is dedicated to “environmental harmony” and their menu features "Comt cheese souffl with mche salad," "Meyer lemon clairs with huckleberry coulis;" and "Chicory salad with creamy anchovy vinaigrette and olive toast."

I want to remind you that this is for the Berkeley Public School District.  This is an earmark that we should certainly strip if they had done nothing against the Marine Corps.

This earmark by itself is particularly egregious and the American taxpayer should not be required to foot the bill.

The Roger Clemens Congressional hearing just ended here on Capitol Hill after four hours of nail biting testimony.

Why is Congress spending time on baseball?  We have a deficit that is now heading back up over $400 billion. We have unsustainable programs in Social Security and Medicare. We have no control over our immigration policies and radical terrorists around the world who want to kill us.

The why is clear. It's great spectacle and generates lots of publicity and attention for members of Congress. But Major League Baseball is a private enterprise, albeit one with a federally granted monopoly. The products alleged to have been used are legal with a prescription.

It seems to me that this is an issue for baseball to work out in its own rules to please its customers, the fans. It is not something that rises to the level of Congressional investigations.

But gee, if we didn't do this people might spend more time looking at earmarks and overspending. Now we wouldn't want that would we?