Below is a memo sent to NTU
members late last week, addressing the national debt issue. If you
agree with it, as I do, please
call your U.S. Congressman and U.S. Senators Kerry and Brown,
especially Senator Scott Brown who might actually care what we
say.
Federal spending is out of
control. Over the last decade, Presidents and lawmakers from
both parties have triggered an explosion in our national
debt from $5.8 trillion to more than $14.4 trillion – nearly
a 150 percent increase! As our leaders in Washington
continue negotiations over the debt limit, NTU needs YOUR
help to make sure we solve this problem once and for all.
Our President and his
allies keep ignoring the danger signs that America’s fiscal
policy is failing. In recent weeks the Administration has
been encouraging Congress to rush through an increase to the
debt ceiling of $2 trillion or more. That strategy is
nothing more than a naked attempt to allow Washington to
rack up trillions in new deficit spending without any
structural reforms. As NTU President Duane Parde has asked,
“What good is increasing the debt ceiling if nothing is done
to curb the reckless spending that will perpetually test any
limit on borrowing, no matter how high?”
To fight back, NTU, along
with a broad coalition of conservative groups, have three
demands that must be met before agreeing to any increase in
the debt ceiling:
1. Cut – Immediate
and substantial cuts must be made to reign in our deficit in
the short term;
2. Cap – Durable
statutory spending caps must be passed that would reduce
federal spending to its historic range of 18-20 percent of
Gross Domestic Product (GDP); and
3. Balance – The
House and Senate must send to the states for ratification a
Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution that contains
a spending limitation and a “super-majority” vote
requirement in Congress for raising taxes.
House and Senate leaders
appear ready to ignore these commonsense fixes and agree to
a debt limit increase in return for relatively modest
spending cuts. That’s simply not enough. Without structural
changes like a Balanced Budget Amendment, Washington will
continue to throw money it doesn’t have at problems it only
manages to make worse.
We must remind the folks
in Washington that the debt ceiling has already been raised
10 times in the past 10 years.
Each agreement to increase
the limit has come with promises that the federal government
will get its house in order, that this time things will be
different, but every year the promises get broken and
business as usual continues.
America can no longer
afford such backsliding. Using realistic assumptions about
future policies, the non-partisan Congressional Budget
Office projects that debt as a share of GDP would soar
beyond its historical peak by 2023 and would reach 190
percent in 2035. To ensure that taxpayers are protected over
the long term, NTU is working hard to make spending
restraint and a Balanced Budget Amendment part of any debt
limit compromise. But make no mistake – this is THE
major, unified push that fiscal conservatives will be making
in connection with the debt ceiling vote. If you intend to
act at all on this issue, NOW is the time! Contact
your Representatives and Senators TODAY.
