In 1997 the United States Senate voted on a Balanced Budget Amendment. Perhaps, faced with the uncontrolled spending, the highest debt in history, high unemployment rates, and up to our eyeballs in debt owed to China, we could collectively wish that we could turn back the clock to 1997 and obtain that one more vote needed to pass the amendment for a balanced budget. Because it failed, the Congress has raised the debt ceiling 10 times over the last 10 years and the national debt has nearly tripled from just over $5 trillion to $14.3 trillion dollars. Foreign countries hold $4.5 trillion of that debt.
This past fall, the Obama administration pushed hard to get an early vote on increasing the debt limit and failed. The vote in the November elections ensured a change from Democrats to Republican in the House and it closed the gap of Democratic control in the Senate. This resulted in in the Omnibus Spending Bill for the new fiscal year being defeated and the vote on the debt ceiling being postponed. In a matter of a few days, that decision will once again raise its ugly head.
There has been a lot fear talk by the administration mouthpieces that the government will be forced to shut down. That a failure to meet the debt obligations will cause a crash in the stock market. We can recall all this doom and gloom talk with the failure of the banks and automobile industry and now they want another credit card. Why can't the Congress run the operation of the national government like they run the finances of their personal family home? Oh yeah, it is relatively easy to just apply for another credit card. There are families that do that. They max out their Visa limit of $5,000 and keep making minimum payments while applying for a MasterCard and then a another after another. Before they realize the long term impact of such irrational decisions, they have amassed $10 to $30 Thousand dollars in credit card debt and are asking the courts to forgive their debt through bankruptcy. Over the last ten years, the total debt per citizen has gone from $$27 thousand to $52 thousand dollars. At the national level there are no bankruptcy courts. The debt ceiling fight as been an ongoing problem since the early '80's with promised spending cuts that never happen. The administrations of both parties have chosen to raise debt ceilings and put us more into debt by selling bonds to foreign nations.
This insanity must stop. Back in 2006, when the vote on the debt limit came up under an Republican leadership, the junior senator from Illinois stated:
"Increasing America's debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that 'the buck stops here.' Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better."
Our current Vice President Joe Biden said during the same period in 2006:
"The President's (Speaking of George W. Bush) budget plans will bring that number to $11.8 trillion at the end of the next 5 years. This is a record of utter disregard for our Nation's financial future and an indifference to the price our children and grandchildren will pay to redeem our debt when it comes due."
Mr. President...Mr. Vice President, I could not agree more with your statements of 2006. It applied then and it applies equally today. When your administration took office, the national debt stood at $10.6 Trillion and you have raised that debt in just over two years by 35 percent.
It is past time to immediately impose serious spending cuts into the national budget that still awaits Congressional approval. But I would go even further to suggest that it is time for a Balanced Budget Amendment. Senator Jim DeMint, (R-SC) with the help of some of his colleagues are hoping to introduce a Balanced Budget Amendment which would require (1) Congress to balance the budget each year, (2) prevent Congress from spending more than 20 percent of GDP, and (3) require a 2/3 super-majority vote to raise taxes. This effort can be reviewed at http://stopthedebtpledge.com/. While your at it, contact your representatives and tell them this hypocrisy must stop. Our nation is going in the wrong direction and will be destroyed from within.
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