During an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Wednesday morning, U.S. Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), a member of the Senate Budget Committee, discussed the federal budget process and the fiscal year 2017 omnibus spending bill currently being considered by Congress.
On the broken federal budget process:
“As far as the budget goes, the playground bragging rights are not particularly interesting to me. We do need to pass bills – twelve appropriations bills – each year. The way we’re using this slush fund, Joe, this OCO (Overseas Contingency Operations) fund, is really inappropriate. We passed a budget agreement years ago to lower spending on discretionary items by $1.2 trillion, but using this slush fund, we've already spent $810–820 billion more than we were supposed to… It really is a broken process. What we’re doing when we get three or four staffers in the room at the end to really make the deal, what we really are doing is sending our young kids over the cliff as we spend more money than we should. So, it is a broken process. This year’s behind us, unfortunately… This is what happens, and Americans are not being served well by this [process].”
On his opposition to the fiscal year 2017 omnibus spending bill:
“I’m one of the few guys left around here, I think, that cares about our fiscal issues, and I realize we’re in a party-time atmosphere here now. But I’m sorry, I just cannot support it. Throw tomatoes at me, if you will. It has nothing to do with who won, who lost [in the omnibus negotiations]. I could care less about that. What I do care about is the long-term fiscal situation in our nation, and this bill doesn’t appropriately deal with that.”
On how to reduce spending and get our fiscal house in order:
“Giving the military a long run where they’ve got over the next five years knowledge of where they’re going to be and offsetting that with other spending reductions – which is the way this is supposed to work – absolutely, that is the [right] path forward. You cannot take 70 percent of our spending off the table. You just cannot do that. I’m sorry. [Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are] not only where all the money is, [they are] where all the growth and spending is. If you’ve got a Congress and a president that says, ‘Hey, we're not touching any of this, I’m sorry, this is not going to be part of our process,’ what you’re really doing is saying we have no desire to solve our nation’s fiscal issues. So, look, I’ve been consistent on this, Joe. I’m not waking up today with this. It’s just we’re not going to deal with it. I’m not going to vote for things that I know are just an obfuscation of our responsibilities, and you know, that’s the way it is. It’s not something that’s a newfound place for me to be.”