Has seen Discretionary Spending drop three years in a row. Never before in my lifetime have we seen such a thing. I credit this body with being a driving force in that because we were elected by the American People who want to see their fiscal bucks put back in order, but we succeeded on the discretionary side. Discretionary turns out to be the easier nut to crack because that money doesnt go out the door unless this u. S. House of representatives acts. That distinguishes it, mr. Speaker, from mandatory spending. Thats the third set of columns on my chart. Mandatory spending, as i said, 2 3 of our budget, 68. 3 to be precise, and of all the sequestration cuts, 63. 8 of the budget is only going to bear 14. 4 of the pain. The back story there, mr. Speaker, is thats the only 14. 4 of the pain. As i said Discretionary Spending has been on the chopping block in 2011, 2012, and now again in 2013. But mandatory spending we havent had a single agreement about, and i dont hear the white house talking about it, either. The white house put together a group it was called the simpsonbowles commission. It was named afterers kin bowles, a former clinton chief of staff, and alan simpson, former republican senator. And they came together and what the president called his Deficit Reduction Commission to give the president and an idea what we could do to get our fiscal house in order. I want to show in you this chart, mr. Speaker, its the chronic deficits we have had in this country, goes back to 1970. All this red ink represents the inflation adjusted, 2012 dollars, comparing apples to apples across this chart, the deficit that is we have had in this country, and you see going back to 197 o 0, mr. Speaker, which happens to be the year of my birth, we have run a deficit every single year from 199. You remember 1998 we had Newt Gingrich leading the first republican u. S. House of representatives in modern times. Bill clinton in the white house. They came together to solve some big problems. Welfare reform, Health Insurance reform. Folks forget about Health Insurance reform. We did away with preexisting conditions. Did away with all of the impediments in the large group markets, what they call the plans, had Great Success in that area, and finally got back into some positive territory. To be truthful, this assumes that all the federal all the Social Security revenues, medicare revenues are getting spent on other projects rather than going in the trust fund and being preserved. We didnt really have a surplus. We were spending Social Security and medicare revenues to create a surplus. But we did have some better years then. Then we go into the bush years. This is important. 9 11 changed the way this country deals with National Security. A lot of programs going on much to my surprise, mr. Speaker, you remember, we create add brand new federal department with the Republican House, republican senate, and republican president. We created a brand new entitlement program, Medicare Part d with a Republican House and republican president. And we ran during the bush years, and represented right here, we ran at that time what was the largest deficit in American History. The largest deficit in American History were run during the Bush Administration with Republican House, republican president. And we began to get a hold of that. That was after 2001, september 11 again, dramatic up tick in spending on Homeland Security, National Security concerns, thats an estimation. Its not an excuse. We reached those massive deficits, the largest deficits in American History. And we begin to bring those back down. Enter 2007. 2007, 2008 we had a republican president in the white house, we had a democratic speaker here in the u. S. House, spending began to tick back up. And as we entered the obama years, mr. Speaker, here is the largest deficit in American History recorded during the Bush Administration, this is the annual deficit recorded in the Obama Administration. Not twice as large than the largest deficit in American History. Not three times as large as the largest deficit in American History. But almost four times larger than the previous largest annual deficit in American History was the first year deficit recorded in the Obama Administration. We tip, that was the First Time Ever we run trillion dollar deficits, we continue to run trillion dollar deficits throughout that time. Tax policy hasnt changed during that time. Tax policy is exactly the same. You hear in the newspaper all the time, mr. Speaker, the bush tax cuts. I dont know that that has meaning anymore. In 2001 and 2003 we did do some dramatic changes to tax policy. President obama extended all of those changes in 2010. Thats the law of the land still today. Tax policy has been exactly the same over this continuum. What has changed, mr. Speaker, what has changed is the spending. The reason deficits have grown not one, not two, not three but almost four times larger than the previous record deficit in American History is not because tax policy has changed, it hasnt. Its because federal spending policy has changed. And thats what we have to get our arms around here in this body. What i show Going Forward, mr. Speaker, put a little square around the annual budget deficits that have been run during the first four years of the Obama Administration, but i also project what the Congressional Budget Office believes, thats a nonpartisan Budget Planning group we have here on capitol hill, what they believe is in store for us in the future if we continue under current policy. H tshthats trillion dollar deficits going out for years to come. The problem is not tax policy, mr. Speaker, the problem is spending policy. Can we improve tax policy . You Better Believe it. Mr. Speaker, you know im a cosponsor, main sponsor of h. R. 25, the fair tax. Thats the largest, most popularly cosponsored fundamental tax reform proposal on either the house side or the senate side. In fact its the largest most popularly cosponsored tax proposal on both sides of the United States congress. Fundamentally changed the way we tax. Absolutely improve our tax system. But dont be misled, the problem in america is not bad tax policy, the problem is bad spending polcy. Policy. We have to move the focus away from taxation, which again has been the same for the last 12 years, and move it towards spending which has changed dramatically just in the last four. Im not one just to point the finger of blame, mr. Speaker. This freshman class came about results. They didnt come about whose fault it was. Putting blame on both sides of the aisle, plenty of blame in congress and the white house. Plenty of blame going back decades. Decades. But finding a solution is a priority for every man and woman in this body, all 435 men and women in this body are focused on finding a solution, and im just so proud, mr. Speaker, i start to grin every time i start to talk about it. When you and i got here in this body, mr. Speaker, we tackled fundamental spending reform for the first time in my lifetime, and we impacted just once, mr. Speaker, when we came in in 2011, we passed it twice. This house has passed the only budget to pass anywhere in this town in the two years i have been in congress. We didnt do it once, we did it twice. We didnt do it one year, we did it both years. And in each, mr. Speaker, we didnt just complain about those before us who left us a current path of deficit and despair Going Forward, which is what happens if we fail to tackle our spending concerns, we passed that path to prosperity here in the house of representatives that provided a solution. Not a solution 10 years from now, not a solution five years from now, but a solution that begin to administer tough love, because thats the only kind thats left here, in year one. Cant kick the can down the road. Have to take these challenges on headon. Its not just about the day. Again, mr. Speaker, there are solutions. We propose that solution in the ryan budget. I say ryan budget. Im proud, hes my chairman, i sit on the budget committee. It was a very cooperative process. He laid out his ideas. Had he this Great Committee of democrats and republicans there. We gave input and made changes. We passed that committee in the budget committee, passed that budget in the budget committee. We brought it to the house floor. We had a freeforall where every member of the house who wanted to introduce a budget could introduce a budget. There were several. Every man, woman in this body who thought they had a better way to solve americas fiscal crisis could introduce a budget. And many of them did and only one of those budgets passed this body. Thats now the house budget. Passed not once but twice. Provided real solutions. Mr. Speaker, heres our spending represented a different way, because theres so many head herrings in this body. I red herrings in this body. I want to say, mr. Speaker, if you help me spread the word with my colleagues on the left. Im on the rules committee. We often handle the rules debate here on the floor. It gets toxic from time to time. Folks are trying to make their point. Everybodys got their talking points. It turns out into an turns into an argument instead of a discussion how o to make america better. I do hope in this coming time, whether we use special order to do it, time off the floor to do it, well find an opportunity to have more of a discussion. Because the facts are what the facts are. We ought to be able to agree on what the facts are, and then we ought to be able to disagree what about the solutions are. We ought to be able to question each others judgment without questioning each others motivations. I hope well be able to spend some time on that. I heard folks say, mr. Speaker, oh, the problem is that global war on terror. Its all those war fighting efforts. Thats what put us in this deficit circumstance that we are in. Mr. Speaker, this blue represents base spending. Going back to 2002. I started right there when the wars began. This yellow line represents the spending that was done on the global war on terror. Its a big number, mr. Speaker, because our commitment to our men, women in uniform is unequivocal. Unequivingal. We stand by equivocal. We stand behind the men and women who have been asked to go overseas to protect our nation. We defend them here in this house with our budget vote unequivocally. But its a small number, mr. Speaker, compared to all the other spending that goes on. Clearly this yellow line is not what has created a trillion dollar budget deficit, the largest budget deficit in American History by a factor of four. Its the base spending that does that. Here are the financial bailouts. I would have voted no on the bailouts had i been here, mr. Speaker. You and i were not. It wasnt the financial bailouts. As good or bad as they were. There is no agreement on it. That is not what created these massive deficits. Its this giant blue line here. Finally, the 2009 stimulus bill. 2009 stimulus bill, actually the largest portion here in recent history of what we are spending, spent more on the stimulus bill than we spent on our men and women fighting two wars overseas. Even that is not responsible for this continuing growing line of federal spending. Spending more than we have ever spent before. In fact, in 10 years, spreebling, mr. Speaker, 10 years, from 2002 to from 2012 to 2022, again if we do nothing, federal spending is expected to rise by 33 . I dont know if you your salary is expected to rise by 33 , mr. Speaker, if you are working in middle america. I know my Community Salary is not. 33 the size and scope of government, and the president is proposing to grow it more. To spend more. The problem is isnt tax policy, mr. Speaker. The problem is spending. You know, mr. Speaker, we hear a lot about fairness. I want to talk a little bit about that now. Im going to switch to tax policy because thats what everybody seems to be obsessed with in the media. I want to make sure we dispel some of the myths of whats going on there. I went to dictionary. Com as im apt to do, mr. Speaker, and printed out what fair is. They said free from bias, dishonesty, or injustice. The first definition. Free from bias, dishonesty, or injustice. And two, legitimately thought, pursued, done, or given proper under the rules. Fair. But i think we all support fairness. Im certain that we do, but im absolute certain what president obama believes is fair is different from what the people i represent believe is fair. And what i brought here, mr. Speaker, is a chart from the joint committee on taxation, thats the group here on capitol hill that is in charge of measuring all the tax policy, its a nonpartisan group, they just try to tell you what the facts are about tax polcy, and this chart represents what the facts are in 2010, about the taxes and tax rate. That was the most recent year for which they had a study. It was the tax returns turned in in america. There was 155 million of them, 155 million tax returns turned in america. Adjusted gross income, thats not actually your total income. Its a machination. You go through there on your tax returns. We put it in different categories. Out of 155 tax returns turned in, mr. Speaker, 155 million, just under six million reported income of 200,000 or above. 155 million just under six million reported an income of 200,000 or above. Whats even more interesting, though, is the number of returns below 10,000. Because were going to talk about fairness. Those folks under 10,000, i dont think theres a man, woman in this body who believe theres a family of four trying to live on 10,000 that doesnt want help. I pinch pennies as much as anyone. I have sales for wal greens and cvs. Thats tough to do in todays economy. 10,000. So thats why its so interesting. Look out here. Of the almost 21 million tax returns filed, only 14 of them ended up having a tax associated with them, 425,000 were itemized. Now i want you to think about that, mr. Speaker. You know, most americans dont itemize on their taxes. They have the standard exemption, the standard deduction. Most americans take that. Even homeowners. Of course, the mortgage Interest Deduction is the largest itemized deduction that most American Families take followed by the charitable deduction. But most American Families dont itemize at all. So you have to ask yourself, mr. Speaker. Who are the folks who are reporting under 10,000 a year in income who are doing all this itemizing . Its about 301. Even down here among the richest of americans, mr. Speaker, its 11. 301. Folks are gaming this tax code, gaming this tax code to participate not at all in the funding of our government. And when we get together here to try to think about how we take care of the poorest among us, when we get together here how to reach out to those less fortunate among us, we lock at this category. Sure look at this category. Sure, folks who make 10,000, theyre doing such clever crazy things on their tax code that the standard deduction and standard exemption are not good enough for them and they are going to maximize their return even more so they can get to zero, those folks are not the ones who need our help. We need to consider that in the context of fairness. 155 million returns, six million of them over 200,000 a year. You know, were in a republic, mr. Speaker. Some folks say democracy. Obviously its republic, but the majority can rule here. And im just doing the math in my head. If there are 155 Million People filing tax returns but only six million of them are making more than 200,000 a year, im pretty sure that i can find 51 that say lets not tax us but lets tax them instead. I want you to think about that in the context of fairness. Just in the spirit of full disclosure, mr. Speaker, im not in the 1 . I have aspirations one day to make it in the 1 but i am not in the 1 . Never have been in my adult working life. I dont think im going to make it anytime soon. I aspire fiscal success. I hope i have those good ideas that people will pay for. I hope by the sweat of my brow and the power of my work ethic i can generate some wealth. But im not part of the them that folks want to tax. Im part of the us that folks dont want to tax and are going to get a free ride in this proposal from the president. I want to talk about that in the context of fairness. Let me tell you something you may not know, mr. Speaker. Jimmy carter was the last president from the great state of georgia so im going to start in the last of the carter years, 1979. What i have here on this chart is the percentage of all federal income Tax Liability paid by citizens of the United States of america. What are we doing as citizens of america to pay for our government . And in the last year of the carter administration, the bottom 80 of American Income earners, which is most of us, thats the middle class. Thats everybody there. The bottom 80 was paying 35 of all the bills in this country. 80 of americans were paying 35 of the bills. That top 1 , mr. Speaker, that top 1 of america was paying 18 of the bills. Now, again, we talk about fairness. I again, im not in the