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Congressman Greg Walden will be in Bend today to discuss the Republicans plan to ban earmarks.
Congressman Greg Walden will be in Bend today to discuss House Republicans’ ban on earmark spending projects in recognition of record out-of-control spending and need to get the federal budget under control.
He will be discussing this issue at his Bend office, 1051 NW Bond Street, Suite 400, at 12:30 p.m.
“Federal spending is out of control and unsustainable. The American public is sick and tired of it, and changing the long-standing broken ways of Congress is overdue,” Rep. Greg Walden said. “As a small business owner of more than 21 years, I know how important it is to run a balanced budget. Congress could take a lesson from small business owners and local governments on how to manage a checkbook, and a moratorium on earmarks is a good first step. But there’s a long way to go to get the flawed budget process under control. Congress simply cannot continue on the reckless borrow and spend ways of the past.”
An Associated Press story published yesterday noted that the federal government produced a $1.4 trillion deficit last year alone, and is expected to register an additional $1.6 trillion in debt this year. Next year, the federal government is expected to run another deficit of over $1 trillion.
Prior to 2008, the federal deficit never topped $459 billion, but it is expected to average $900 billion in red ink over the next 10 years.
In years past, Rep. Greg Walden has maintained a policy of only passing earmark requests to the Appropriations Committee on behalf of non-profit or local and state government entities proposing projects to directly benefit Oregonians. He was one of the first members of the U.S. House to adopt a policy of transparency and post his earmark requests on his website.
