Out of Debt at Home, In the Red in Washington

This week brought a positive headline: American families are getting out of debt and saving more money than in years. The federal government should follow this example.  Unfortunately, the President proposed a budget that would increase the national debt from $14 trillion today to more than $26 trillion in 10 years.  By every measure, the deficits and debt would get worse.

Somehow, the President isn’t getting the grass roots message of living within our means.  Even though he says the words, his budget is a different story.

It’s disappointing to see the President overlook a chance to change direction and lead the country forward on a path to fiscal responsibility.   He even went to the trouble of forming a deficit commission to look at top-to-bottom ways to turn around dangerous spending.  Then he chose not to endorse any significant ideas from his own commission.

We need decisive action to get the debt under control.

To start, we need spending cuts.  Across-the-board cuts are sometimes easier than individual program cuts, because everybody lines up to save individual programs, but both should be on the table.  We need a spending freeze.  I support freezing non-defense related discretionary spending at fiscal year 2008 levels for 10 years.  This change alone would save almost $1 trillion.  Over the two-year period following 2008, spending on this portion of the budget increased by 24 percent.

We need a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, and we need to double efforts to stop fraud, waste and abuse of tax dollars.  We need a provision I’ve co-sponsored to let the President single out specific spending items in bills that land on his desk and send them back to Congress for an up-or-down vote.  All funds rescinded would go to reducing the deficit.

We need a national discussion on tax reform and how to sustain Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.  The President should use his bully pulpit to develop a national consensus on these issues. They require leadership and the use of political capital to get agreement from the American people and their elected representatives.

It’s great news that American families are cutting up their credit cards.  Their government owes them the same.