AMHERST — Rep. Bob Goodlatte spoke to Amherst County business and civic leaders Tuesday about the national debt, health care and federal stimulus spending.
Echoing some of the talking points of the national Republican Party, Goodlatte said, “The number one issue facing the nation right now is the debt being piled up by the federal government.”Goodlatte, R-6th District, said the American public, in effect, fired the Republican majority in Congress after the 2004 national budget broke a record with a $400 billion deficit.
The budget proposed by President Barack Obama for the coming year has a $1.6 trillion deficit, four times higher, Goodlatte said, holding up a Republican-prepared chart with vertical bars representing the deficits.
Much of the deficit is caused by “entitlement spending” for programs, such as food stamps, which increase automatically during economic downturns, Goodlatte said.
But discretionary spending such as the federal stimulus bill causes other parts of the deficit, he said.
Goodlatte said he continues to introduce a proposed constitutional amendment each year that would require a balanced federal budget. It came within one vote of approval in Congress in 1995, but hasn’t come close to approval since then.
“If you are worried like I am about this debt, speak up,” he said, telling people to go to the website www.americaspeakingout.com and put in their suggestions for ways to fix the budget.
“I really think that is the number one issue in Washington that is not being addressed in any significant way,” Goodlatte said.“Instead, what we are doing is passing a new health care bill,” he said as the audience of about 20 people chuckled.
Goodlatte held up a 3-foot by 4-foot chart, covered with colored blocks and dots, that he said showed “all the different government agencies and programs that we have been able to identify that play a role in this plan.”
Aside from those issues, he said, was one that he opposed even more.
“The number one reason I voted against this bill is that we simply cannot afford a new entitlement program for 30-million-plus American citizens, which is what this legislation’s bottom line is all about,” Goodlatte said.
Just 58 percent of the national budget proposed by President Obama for next year is covered by anticipated revenues, Goodlatte said, and the debt it would create will be passed along to children, grandchildren and those not yet born.
In answer to a constituent’s question about “our borders,” Goodlatte said state and local police should be able to check the immigration status of people they pull over for traffic violations.
