“…never underestimate the creativity of the elected official to get around statutes that they have helped write…”

Congressman Jeb Hensarling (TX-05) is the author of H.R. 3964, the Spending, Deficit, and Debt Control Act to reform Washington’s broken spending process; an original co-sponsor of H.R. 4529, Rep. Paul Ryan’s Roadmap for America’s Future, to put our nation’s finances on a sustainable path and co-authored, H.J. Res 79, the Spending Limit Amendment to the Constitution, to ensure that the federal budget does not grow beyond the ability of the family budget’s to pay for it.

From Congressman Jeb Hensarling’s remarks at today’s meeting of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform:

“…never underestimate the creativity of the elected official to get around statutes that they have helped write.  I do believe, though, that it’s important to recognize that, really, biennial budgeting and performance-based budgeting, in many respects, go hand-in-hand.  I mean, as we know, what we do around here is we measure the inputs to a program, and we don’t measure the outputs.  And so, if you want to show that you care about the veteran, if you want to show that you care about the elderly, it’s all measuring the inputs regardless of what the performance is.

And I will say this also, you know the only time that we get any kind of oversight around here is when we have bifurcated government, when we have one party in charge of Congress, and the other party’s in charge of the White House.  That’s the only time, you know.  It should not be used as a political tool.  It ought to be institutionalized, and regardless of who occupies the administration, Congress has to do the oversight if we want to get a grip on our budget.

But I just wanted to add my voice.  Indeed, Paul and I, I think, have worked on this for eight years, so far to no avail, but hope springs eternal.”