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Congressman Henry Cuellar emphasized the need for moderate Democrats and Republicans to work together to get work done in Washington, D.C., at the Greater Mission Chamber of Commerce’s quarterly Buenos Tardes Luncheon held Tuesday.

Balancing the federal budget isn’t as easy as just cutting expenditures to match revenues, Cuellar said, while noting the federal deficit has been reduced from $1 trillion in 2009 to $486 billion last year.

“But we need to bring it down to where we can start having a surplus like we did in the late 1990s under President Clinton and the Republican Congress at the that time,” Cuellar said.

The challenge, however, Cuellar said is about two-thirds of the $3.7 trillion federal government budget are mandatory expenses like veterans benefits, social security and Medicare. If Congress were to cut expenses to match revenue, he said there would be a little money left over, but not enough to cover transportation needs, the military, border security and education.

As a congressman, Cuellar said people tell him three things: don’t raise taxes, get rid of that deficit, and certain programs are the most important programs, so don’t cut them. For example, Cuellar pointed to the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act, which removed the “pay as you go” option on Medicare reimbursements to doctors. It will cost almost $200 billion, Cuellar said.

“Doctors said, ‘Hey, we’re the exception.’ I support that,” Cuellar said. “But I hesitated because of deficit spending because somebody else is going to come in and say, ‘I’m special. Go into deficit spending.’”

To put the budget into perspective, Cuellar said out of the $3.7 trillion in expenditures, only $1.1 trillion is not encumbered entitlement funding. Half of the $1.1 trillion goes to the military and the other half funds everything else, he said.

Cuellar said he hears complaints that taxes are too high, but income taxes under Obama and former President Bush are the lowest they’ve been since the Truman administration in the 1950s. Still, he admitted the country needs tax reform. The congressman said he hoped see work on it this year because almost everything will stop in 2016 during the presidential election.

Another complaint Cuellar said is that the federal government is too big. However, he said in 1962 there were 5.3 million federal employees, compared to 4.1 million employees in 2012.

“Again, I’m trying to give you some facts and some myths that are out there,” Cuellar said.

He said he’s also working to get Texas more transportation dollars. The administration’s preliminary draft of freight corridors started about 150 miles outside of the border.

In subcommittee, he added language to the transportation bill that would start freight corridors in the middle of the international bridges. It’s not quite the Coordinated Border Infrastructure program, which provided billions in funding for projects that expedited border crossings, but it’s getting closer, Cuellar said.

“I said with all due respect, I’ve never seen an 18-wheeler jump 150 miles from one place to another,” Cuellar said.

http://www.progresstimes.net/news/general-interest/7316-cuellar-talks-budget-at-luncheon.html