| A crisis is quickly approaching that will undermine the strength of our country and rob our children of their future prosperity. When it comes to getting our nation’s fiscal house in order we are running out of options and the time to act is now. |
After a decade of runaway federal spending, the appetite in Washington to spend without regard to the taxpayer is still strong. Lawmakers from both political parties have broken their promises for fiscal responsibility and therefore have broken all historical records for deficits and debt. Our children will soon pay the price.
It is time to fundamentally change the way Washington spends taxpayer money and establish constitutional safeguards that will force the federal government to live within reasonable means. That is why I am proud to join Congressman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) in proposing the Spending Limit Amendment. |
| Fiscal storm clouds are upon us. In five years, federal spending has skyrocketed to 24.7% from 19.9% of our economy. That’s the highest level since World War II. Borrowing has ballooned the national debt to $11.9 trillion from $7.3 trillion, a five-year increase equal to the accumulation of debt between President George Washington and President Bill Clinton. |
The situation is dire, but don’t take our word for it. “U.S. fiscal policy is on an unsustainable path to an extent that cannot be solved by minor tinkering,” Congressional Budget Office Director Doug Elmendorf said recently. Former Comptroller General David Walker called the rising costs of government entitlements a “fiscal cancer” that threaten “catastrophic consequences for our country.” |
Our spending problems are tantamount to generational theft and fundamentally alter the American ethic. We cannot have both unlimited government and unlimited opportunity. Read more at online.wsj.com |
The federal government expects to distribute $32 billion in Recovery Act funds per month, up from an average $27 billion a month over the past year, according to Vice President Joe Biden, who will release his annual stimulus progress report on Wednesday. |
| “The American people took on record amounts of debt to fund Washington Democrats’ trillion-dollar ’stimulus’ and a year later the nation’s unemployment rate is near 10%,” said Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, the House’s top Republican. “Taxpayers aren’t getting their money’s worth from the trillion-dollar ’stimulus’ and struggling families and small businesses are rightly asking, ‘Where are the jobs?’”Read more at money.cnn.com |
| “The truth is, PAYGO really means here in Washington: you pay and they go on spending” |
| My colleagues who know me well, know that I, many times, found myself at cross purposes in fighting the president of my own party and some leadership of my own party in some of those big spending fights. |
| Over the last three years, the Democrat majority has literally broken the ceiling on fiscal responsibility, and as I just admitted, that ceiling was pretty high |
| Since Democrats took control of Congress in January, 2007, the national debt had increased by $3.96 trillion, a 42 percent increase in three years |
| Forty percent of federal spending is exempted from the fiscal discipline fix that we’re being told is encompassed in PAYGO. The truth is, PAYGO really means here in Washington: you pay and they go on spending |
| Obama’s $3.8 trillion budget |
| The $3.8 trillion budget blueprint President Obama plans to submit to Congress on Monday calls for billions of dollars in new spending to combat persistently high unemployment and bolster a battered middle class. |
The budget blueprint, the second of Obama’s presidency, comes as Republicans emboldened by recent election victories are fanning public outrage over government spending, and nervous Democrats are clamoring for more money to reduce a 10 percent unemployment rate. As both parties gear up for the November election, Obama’s spending plan is designed to steer a middle course between those opposing goals and to reassure angry voters.
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| But Republicans are more likely to highlight the fact that a jobs bill would drive this year’s budget deficit even higher than the record $1.4 trillion recorded in 2009, according to White House projections.Read more at www.washingtonpost.com |
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