A Balanced Budget

It’s Time for a Budget Showdown

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Whatever it Takes 

          No one wants a government shutdown, but if that’s what it takes to make the tax and spend liberals get with the program, then bring it on.  We simply cannot continue to spend money at the rate our treasury has been bleeding since Democrats took control of Congress in 2007.  During the 2010 midterm elections, taxpayers spoke loudly and clearly at both the state and federal levels, indicating their disgust with outrageous government spending and their clear understanding that this is a threat to both our economy and our national security.  It is not rocket science to conclude that this mounting debt will eventually have to be repaid by future generations. 

No Compromise!  

          The Tea Party movement, which has attracted millions of followers from all major parties, is a phenomenon that has not been seen before in our lifetime and which should be a warning to all elected representatives that Americans will not stand by and let this nonsense continue.  We salute the true leaders, like Congressman Paul Ryan (R) and Governor Scott Walker (R), both of Wisconsin, who are courageously fighting to carry out the will of hardworking Americans who want to put the brakes on spending.  The liberals need to know that we do not want endless debate, compromise or ‘give and take’.  The time for that is long past.  What we want is an end to reckless spending (period!) and we are willing to see the government shut down if that’s what it takes. 

Fiscal Crisis 

          Every American should be deeply concerned about the fiscal mess our country finds itself in right now.  As we pointed out in our article, Managing a Budget: 101, our current national debt is more than 13 trillion dollars ($13,000,000,000.00) which means that every U.S. citizen owes more than $43,000.00 as their portion of this debt.  This doesn’t even take into account unfunded obligations like Medicare and social security which could add another 45 to 50 trillion dollars to the national debt.  Since the Democrats took control of Congress in 2007 the national debt has continued to increase by an average of more than 4 billion dollars per day!  The fact that 50% of our national debt is owed to foreign lenders, like some of the OPEC nations and Communist China, is a serious threat to national security. 

What Can You Do? 

          There is plenty that we can all do to turn this around before it’s too late.  First, join your local Tea Party group and support the Tea Party Patriots.  Call, write and email your senators, congressman, governor and state representatives to let them know you want this reckless government spending to stop now.  Finally, brace yourselves for a tough fight and be prepared for a government shutdown if that’s what it takes!

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The Welfare State

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ONE IN SIX AMERICANS ON THE DOLE

‘Ask not what you can do for your country.  Ask what your country can do for you.’

          Is this what it has come to since President Kennedy gave his famous speech in January 1961?  Recent reports indicate that one in six Americans are now on some kind of welfare.  Fifty million Americans are on Medicaid, the federal-state program for the poor.  At the end of the Eisenhower presidency in 1961 there were 45 domestic social programs.  By the end of the Johnson presidency in 1969 that number had risen to 435.  For all the billions of dollars spent since Johnson’s War on Poverty, the poverty rate in this country has essentially stayed the same. 

          No one denies that we need a safety net for those who truly cannot take care of themselves, but endless welfare programs simply don’t work and in many cases they are self-perpetuating.  But that hasn’t discouraged the liberals, who want to increase social spending by increasing taxes on those who would otherwise be creating jobs in this moribund (see WOW) economy.  And as George Bernard Shaw famously said, “A government with the policy to rob Peter to pay Paul can be assured of the support of Paul”.

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Managing a Budget: 101

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Budget Deficit vs National Debt 

          Each year the President presents a budget to Congress, but it is the Congress which ultimately decides how much money is actually spent and what it is spent on.  The deficit is the difference between the money the government takes in (mainly taxes) and what the government spends (including interest payments on debt) each year.  When there is a deficit, Treasury must borrow the money needed for the government to pay its bills.  For each dollar the current Democrat controlled Congress spends, 41 cents has to be borrowed! 

          The national debt is the total sum of the accumulated annual deficits.  Our current national debt of more than 13 trillion dollars ($13,000,000,000.00) means that every U.S. citizen owes more than $43,000.00 as their portion of this debt.  And this doesn’t even take into account unfunded obligations like medicare and social security which could add another 45 to 50 trillion dollars to the national debt.  Since the Democrats took control of Congress in 2007 the national debt has continued to increase by an average of more than 4 billion dollars per day!  It should be of great concern to every American that 50% of our national debt is owed to foreign lenders, like some of the OPEC nations and Communist China.

          During President Bush’s 6th year (2006) the Republican controlled 109th Congress was responsible for a deficit of $248,181,000.00 (248 billion dollars).  By 2008 the Democrat controlled 110th Congress had nearly doubled that to $458,555.00.  By 2009 with Democrats in control of both Congress and the White House, the deficit skyrocketed to $1,400,000,000.00 (1.4 trillion dollars)!  Because the national debt is the total sum of the accumulated annual deficits, the national debt increased by more than one third during that same period.  There appears to be no end in sight to this profligate spending by the left wing liberals in Congress, with two additional bills totally billions more in nonexistent dollars having just been passed.  Social spending is now the largest expense item in our federal budget. 

          Americans of all ages are deeply concerned about the mounting debt and the large amount of interest that we pay on that debt each year.  Unless this trend is reversed by voting these liberal politicians out of Congress in November, the young people of our country will be stuck paying off trillions of dollars in debt with higher tax rates and a diminished quality of life.  Perhaps that is why we are seeing increasing numbers of high school and college students challenging their liberal teachers in class and joining the conservative movement. 

          A national debt of 13 trillion dollars and growing is indeed a serious problem.  Worse yet is the specter of a complete failure of our economy.  Countries fail when the economy fails, as was most recently seen with the collapse of the former Soviet Union.  Sorry to point out that what we have been discussing is just the national debt and does not even take into consideration the out of control spending and mounting debts of state and local governments, many of whom are already bankrupt!

          It is an interesting historical fact that before 1974 Congress had no formal process for establishing a coherent budget.  When Republican President Richard Nixon refused to spend some of the money the Democrat controlled 93rd Congress had earmarked, Congress created the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to challenge him and direct control of the budget away from the president and toward Congress.  Imagine a president having the leadership to stand up to a spendthrift Congress and refuse to waste taxpayer’s money!

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