Responsible budget policy missing-in-action in

Washington, DC
Here are some important numbers to think about:
• Through the years the US has amassed a national debt of $14 trillion
($14,000,000,000,000).
• President George W. Bush increased the national debt by $4.2 trillion to
$10.4 trillion over his eight years in office.
• President Barack Obama has increased the debt by $3.5 trillion to $13.954
trillion in his two-plus years in office.
• The debt now exceeds 90 percent of GDP; we owe nearly as much as we
produce each year.
• The U.S. now borrows 40 cents of every dollar it spends.
• Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid account for 43 percent of federal
spending.

What our government is doing is similar to a person – call him Joe – who brings
home $3,000 a month. That will take care of his needs, but it doesn’t buy all he
wants, all of which totals $4,200 a month, so he borrows the rest from a credit line.

When you borrow money, you generally make monthly payments that cover the
interest on the loan and some of the principal, but Joe only pays the interest. He
borrows $1,200 each month and each year he adds $14,400 to his debt.

The lender put a limit on how much Joe can borrow based upon his financial
circumstances. At some point he will have taken all the money available on his line
of credit, and will have to make some hard choices, some lifestyle changes, start
living within his means and start paying down his debt, unless he can convince the
lender to raise his credit limit, which the lender likely wouldn’t do.

Here the comparison breaks down, because unlike Joe and the rest of us, the federal
government can raise its own debt limit whenever it wants to borrow more money
through an act of Congress, and has done so five times over the last several years.
The spending-addicted Washington elite want to raise it again.

Where Joe is forced to begin living within his means and start paying down his debt,
the federal government can theoretically just keep endlessly borrowing and
avoiding fiscal responsibility.

Over the years the irresponsible, self-serving spenders have accumulated so much
debt that every man, woman and child in America would have to pony up $45,000
to pay it off. Contrast that with the fact that the country produces only about $8,400
per person. Clear thinking people recognize that we have a debt crisis, but in the
fantasy land that is Washington, DC, politicians think it is a signal to borrow more
and spend more.

Our president, demonstrating the leadership qualities he developed in a few years

of organizing communities and lecturing college students, leads the charge,
proposing budget deficits exceeding $1 trillion in 2011, 2012 and beyond.
The dire circumstances the president and his cronies in DC are unable to
comprehend, however, do not escape the understanding of a majority of Americans.
An April Gallup poll reflects that two out of three Americans believe Social Security
and Medicare costs are already creating a crisis for the federal government (34
percent) or will do so within 10 years (33 percent), while only 7 percent believe the
cost of these programs will not create a crisis for the foreseeable future.

The spending-addicted ruling class believes we should just go merrily along

spending, spending, spending, while they continue to selfishly put their political
futures and big government ideology ahead of their duty to the country and its
citizens.

Republican Rep. Paul Ryan, Chairman of the House Budget Committee, has done
what should be done and what previous House leaders have refused to do: put forth
a plan to address the fiscal crisis. However, Congressional Democrats who
apparently want to continue spending 40 percent more than the country collects in
taxes annually responded not with a good faith effort to find responsible ways to
reduce spending, but by clouding the issue. Their answer is to scare elderly
Americans, who are the target of a commercial showing a man pushing an elderly
lady in a wheel chair toward a cliff and then dumping her over. This ad is the most
idiotic, the most dishonest, and the most perverse piece of political fraud trotted out
so far in the young 2012 political season. Congratulations, Democrats!

Rep. Ryan’s budget plan would not take away Granny’s Medicare coverage, as this
cheap-shot, deceptive ad suggests, and the Democrats know it. His plan does not
affect anyone 55 years of age or older.

We can have a discussion about whether Mr. Ryan’s proposal is a better way
forward or not, and we should have that discussion, but it appears Congressional
Democrats are unable to offer sensible arguments, and instead prefer to maintain
the status quo and demagogue the issue. They falsely claim ObamaCare will take
care of the problem, or most of it, and say, “Not to worry. We’ve got ten years to
work on a solution.” That is simply not acceptable at this point.

It is time the folks in Congress earn their pay, make the hard but responsible
decisions they were sent there to make, and return fiscal stability to our country.