Brian Riedl Quotations

There are precious few legislative days before the election.

Yes, it's true that earmarks are only 1 percent of all federal spending, but earmarks have a cultural effect on Congress that is much larger than their cost. It fuses Congress together with lobbyists and creates a culture of government spending as a means to re-election, which bleeds into other areas.

Mike Pence has done a fabulous job leading the Republican Study Committee. They have put out a realistic and credible and specific budget proposal to get spending under control when virtually no one else is talking about it.

Montana is getting more highway pork, but so is every other state.

More than anything else, this one program threatens the long-term federal budget.

Nearly all of their savings comes from this cut to total discretionary spending. That does nothing for the real long-term problem.

President Bush's pledge to halve the budget deficit by 2009 distracts policymakers from the real issue of unsustainable trends in long-term entitlement spending. The president's proposal to slow Medicare's 9% annual growth rate is a good fiscal step, but the budget does not propose enough immediate and bold reforms to the quickly growing entitlement programs that threaten to overwhelm the budget.

NASA represents something important in the national psyche. Given that, there isn't a lot of hunger to cut NASA substantially, nor to cripple their ability to explore space.

Most lawmakers are coming to the conclusion that the spending spree we're seeing right now is unsustainable.

Those who are advocates of anti-poverty programs, social programs, education, have their programs threatened by runaway entitlements. There won't be room for both.

Why do they need special treatment to get a grant?

There is no shortage of candidates for elimination. There is only the shortage of political will to make the difficult decisions.

What that means is those costs are being passed down to our children - with interest.

Even small-government conservatives believe Washington should prioritize defense, safety and security, and therefore see rescuing New Orleans as a top government priority.

Director Portman will be inheriting the most dire long-term fiscal outlook we've ever had. The first baby boomers retire in 18 months, and the Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid costs are set to explode. On top of that, he'll be dealing with a Congress that's absolutely addicted to runaway spending and pork!

Congress continues to resist cutting even one program.

Earmarks could be worthy or not, but we still consider it corrupting because lawmakers are deciding who gets a grant.

dump the largest debt in world history into the laps of the next generation. Within a decade, tax increases would need to reach $7,000 per household (a 37 percent tax hike) just to balance the budget.

There's so much investment capital out there for profitable new technologies. Investors are constantly looking for good ideas to invest in. If these ideas are as good as these companies say, they should have no problem, at minimum, finding a loan.

The Senate is clearly dragging its feet on spending reform. Some senators have called for instead reversing the tax cuts.

Sacrifice? ... At this time, there is none.

The more controversial bills will most assuredly end up in a lame-duck Congress.

As bad as the last five years have been, it's going to get even worse the next five years.

This ... bill threatens to become another symbol of irresponsible runaway spending.

There is not much courage out there. Like an alcoholic, the first thing you have to do is admit you have a problem. The flip side of it is, Americans are vehemently opposed to every possible solution.

It's about time lawmakers sacrifice pork projects that essentially serve as taxpayer-financed re-election advertisements.

It's symbolic progress for Congress to learn that they can terminate programs without the sky falling. Maybe they can come back next year and start terminating programs whose costs make a difference.

Congress has no incentive to rein in pork, because pork helps lawmakers get campaign contributions and get re-elected. It is entirely predictable that Congress would create the illusion of reform while retaining the system that allows them to sell government grants for campaign contributions.

It's something we have to decide as a country. What are our priorities?

The biggest economic danger of the next 50 years is the coming crisis in entitlement spending. The problem is the entire health care system is in crisis. The entire U.S. health care system needs to be overhauled. If not, it will literally bankrupt the federal government.

In the absence of even mentioning tax reform in his State of the Union address, it may be presumptuous to assume a revenue-neutral AMT fix after 2007.

I generally would still not count that as an earmark, even though it has a similar effect, because it is such a gray area of how specific is too specific when setting eligibility criteria. I obviously oppose those provisions, but I would not classify them the same as spending earmarks that actually list the name.

The fiscal situation will probably have to worsen and cause some economic pain before it becomes a priority.

The current trend points to tax increases in the long run. The political will to make the difficult decisions on spending is lacking.