The U.S. House of Representatives today (Wednesday) debated the president’s budget proposal. Iowa Congressman Jim Nussle, chairman of the House Budget Committee, said President Bush’s economic policies get credit for improving the economy in the past year. Nussle says we now have strong sustained economic growth and job creation, and have slowed the rate of non-security government spending below the rate of inflation for the first time in years. Nussle said the tax cuts President Bush enacted after taking office prove the federal budget can be balanced even with less tax revenue coming in. In one year, Nussle says, the federal deficit was reduced 20-percent and even with tax reductions he says more money came into the treasury than the year before. “This isn’t a science experiment,” he declared on the House floor, “it’s a fact.” Nussle admitted the economy that year grew faster than anyone expected, but declared that tax cuts helped entice people to invest and to create jobs. The first-district republican congressman said many areas of federal spending should be cut, and will be. Nussle says all spending that’s not related to Homeland Security and Defense should be reduced by eight -tenths of a percent, to keep the country strong but in non-discretionary spending, “weeding the garden.” Nussle took aim at programs that automatically get renewed in the budget every year, using as an example Medicaid programs for healthcare for the poor.Nussle says if nothing’s done, the program grows “unsustainably out of control,” charging that it’s growing too fast now, at a rate of seven and-a-half percent now and calling that “out of control.” Nussle repeatedly said the budget can be balanced by cutting many programs he says are examples of out-of-control spending.
