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Judy on the Federal BudgetJudy outlines her "two favorite ways" in which Congress can end abuse and curb spendingThanks in part to the exercise of some degree of fiscal restraint during the four surplus years ending last September, Congress did manage to pay down nearly half a trillion dollars of our national debt. Regrettably, that course ended with 9-11 and the economic slow-down that began some months earlier.
In the post-September 11th period, three goals have guided Congress: winning the war against terrorism; ensuring homeland security; and bolstering our economy. Achieving these goals costs money, and it demands that Congress shift some of our priorities and place a renewed emphasis on cutting wasteful spending.
The American people are willing to accept temporary deficits, so long as they help us to achieve these goals, are in fact temporary, and are not the product of the kind of wasteful spending that so characterized deficits of the past. The economic slowdown and national emergency created by 9-11 should not be viewed as a license to spend freely or without regard to budgetary discipline.
My two favorite ways in which Congress can end budgetary abuse and cut spending are: by repealing this year`s $190 billion farm bill; and by passing my bill to end the waste, fraud and abuse that costs our Medicare system more than $13 billion each year.
We should repeal this year`s farm bill – not just because it will cost $190 billion over the next decade, but because it turns back the clock on the reforms that Congress wisely enacted in the 1996 Freedom to Farm Act. Back then, Congress attempted to wean farmers off government support and get agriculture out of the hands of government control by eliminating subsidies and letting the market dictate prices and production levels. I voted against the 2002 farm bill, for it completely abandons the free market principles of Freedom to Farm and returns our farmers to government subsidies and hands-on government management of agriculture.
We also should pass my bill, the Medicare Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Act (H.R. 18), which would reduce the waste, fraud and abuse that drains an estimated $13.5 billion each year from the Medicare Trust Fund. This bill will strengthen the program`s enrollment process, expand certain standards of participation, and reduce erroneous payments. Most importantly, it will give law enforcement agencies additional tools to pursue health care swindlers.
As for taxes, I still believe that Americans are taxed too much, not too little. I oppose the repeal -- and favor the extension -- of the tax cuts passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush in 2001.
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