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Drowning in Red Ink

By: Congressman Frank Lucas (Diary)  |  June 11th, 2010 at 03:30 PM  | 

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This month, our country reached a staggering milestone – the national debt topped $13 trillion.  To put that in perspective, if you were to spend $1 per second, it would take you about 412,000 years to rack up $13 trillion in debt.  While the median income per person in 2004 was $23,535, each American taxpayer’s share of the national debt is $118,500.

Even more troubling, if President Obama’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2011 is followed, it would add an additional $1.3 trillion to our debt by September 30, 2011.  This would increase our total national debt to $14.3 trillion – roughly equal to the size of our nation’s entire economy.  Once we reach the point where we owe as much or more than we are able to earn in one year, the United States could fall into some of the same problems we are seeing now in Greece, Portugal, and Spain.

This leads to one very clear, very simple fact: we must learn to live within our means or else we will find ourselves drowning in red ink.

The good news is I truly believe that if we can get a grip on spending in Washington, we can maintain prosperity for future generations.  The first step is to put a stop to the ridiculous idea that spending borrowed government money will somehow grow our economy.  It’s simply not true.  If a $700 billion bailout and a $800 billion so-called stimulus package can’t pull results in even higher unemployment and a stagnant economy, then we should all be able to agree it just did not work.  Instead, we should focus on growing private sector jobs through tax cuts for small businesses and incentives to companies for new hires.  These have proven time and time again to result in real, long-term success.

Next, we need leaders in Washington to come up with real solutions for dealing with our very serious spending problem.  Covering your eyes while you write a rubber check and pretending it won’t bounce can no longer be an option.   This won’t be easy and will require a lot of willpower and willingness to rethink the way our federal government operates.  But I know that if my colleagues and I in Washington will just roll up our sleeves and get to work, we can really make a difference. 

For more information on Congressman Frank Lucas, visit his website at www.house.gov/lucas.

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COMMENTS

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  • izoneguy

    Hello Congressman Lucas,
    What do you think of Nancy Pelosi’s statement?

    http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/06/11/4495844-first-thoughts-pelosi-on-the-midterms

    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi maintained that Democrats would hold on to the House after the midterm elections.

  • mriggio

    how about killing the sunset of the Bush tax-cuts? Why target tax cuts to businesses while raising taxes on everybody else? Lower taxes across the board and watch the economy revive!

    • nepanyrush

      Unfortunately, local and state taxes continue to increase regardless. In fact, in my local area here in PA, the lower of taxes at the time of Bush led to the logic of local officials saying they were now justified in raising the taxes. And in just the past year, the school, country, and local taxes went up so much (new school built) that my property taxes went up $400 PER MONTH. I need a third job now to make ends meet — but there are no jobs.

      There seems to be no end to tax increases, until this Madoff scheme of some of us paying for the rest of society collapses.

  • boneyard

    We’re way past the time when Cong. Lucas suggestions would work. We need far more drastic spending cuts than he suggests, and we need them soon. Trimming the budget at this point is just a spit in the ocean considering the magnitude of the problem.

  • http://xmmlbchat.blogspot.com katesmith

    40 million Americans are on food stamps (Reuters report in May on released Feb. stats from Dept. of Agric). which they said is 1 of 8. They anticipate 43.3 million in 2011. The cost is now $60 billion, it didn’t say per month or per year. In any case, the official gov. office is projecting things to be worse. Which is common sense. But we are told the stimulus program would make everything better. The media always says it’s getting better, any news to the contrary is described as “unexpected.” But isn’t this proof (if one needed it) that it’s not?

  • jaydickb

    Some spending cuts are easy, but most will be hard.

    1. We need to stop subsidizing private enterprise, all of it (agriculture, energy, all of it).

    2. Entitlements must be reformed (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc.). This will be very hard, but must be done.

    3. Bailouts must stop. Fannie and Freddie should be liquidated over time. Not everyone should own a home, and government policy should not be based on the assumption that they should.

    4. Government regulation must be reduced; e.g., why do we need expensive, energy-inefficient ethanol in all our gasoline? Get rid of Sarbanes-Oxley which is very expensive and accomplishes nothing. Examples like these abound.

    Lots of work will be needed; let’s get started.