Font ResizeProvo » Taking on both conservative critics and President Barack Obama, Sen. Bob Bennett said Monday that entitlements, not earmarks, are the root problem of the nation's budget woes.
Speaking to the Utah County Republican Women on Monday, Bennett said the bulk of the budget deficit comes from Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid expenses, and the health-care plan envisioned by Democrats will add to the debt.
"We need to solve the health care problem, but the Obama health care plan must be stopped," Bennett said to applause from the GOP women.
Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, one of three Republicans challenging Bennett for the party's nomination in 2010, has called for the suspension of earmarks -- appropriations requests by lawmakers for their constituents -- as a way to slow spending in Washington.
Bennett has been taken to task for seeking $1 million to combat Mormon crickets, which was branded by U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., as an example of budget pork.
Utah's junior senator said earmark critics do not understand the Constitution -- and how far the government has drifted from that document.
As originally conceived, Congress was given the purse strings, while the president was the military's commander-in-chief. But, starting with the Civil War, presidents have used their wartime authority to take power from Congress. Today, Bennett said the budget is viewed as the
"I see the greatest threat to the check-and-balance system put together by the Founding Fathers coming from the erosion of the power the purse from Congress to the president," Bennett said.
Bennett said cutting earmarks would hardly make a dent in the budget, while entitlements comprise two-thirds of the spending package. The current health care plan Democrats and Obama are pushing would add to it.
Bennett said his own attempt at reforming health care was derailed, but he is confident Republicans will be able to defeat Obama's plan.
Drawing an analogy from George Washington's campaigns in the American Revolution, Bennett said Senate Republicans, under the leadership of Sen. Mitch McConnell, (R-Ky.) are not engaging in frontal assaults on the administration, but rather picking and choosing fights, such as Guantanamo Bay. While it frustrates some conservatives, Bennett said it is a winning strategy.
"They don't see how we are pouring sand in the gas tank and loosening the lug nuts on some of [Obama's] proposals," Bennett said.
