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May Newletter (coming soon): “State of Disgrace”
OPINION: On Fiscal Irresponsibility
March 16, 2006
THE GOVERNMENT Treasury Secretary John W. Snow informed Congress last week, has now taken "all prudent and legal actions" to avoid bumping up against the debt ceiling. The limit, Mr. Snow told lawmakers, will need to be raised from its current level: $8,184,000,000,000. If you aren't used to deciphering that parade of zeros, let us translate for you: $8.184 trillion isn't enough. The administration is asking for an additional $781 billion.
The inevitable increase will be the fourth such hike in five years, for a total rise in the national credit limit of more than $3 trillion. During his time in office, President Bush has presided over a 46 percent increase in the federal debt, from about $5.6 trillion. By contrast, during President Bill Clinton's two terms, the debt grew from less than $4 trillion to $5.6 trillion, a 28 percent increase -- and during the last few years of his presidency, Mr. Clinton actually began to pay down the country's "real" debt, that is, debt held by the public, as opposed to the IOUs in Social Security and other government accounts. But as revenues into the treasury take years to account for, we have to go back to pre-President Clinton. So, the true fiscal policies of President Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush were the actual moving forces that helped President Clinton look good in at least the area of treasury revenues.
PUT another way, Mr. Bush has managed to rack up more new debt during his five years in office than the entire debt amassed by the United States through 1988 (which includes 40 presidents!). And there is more to come: The president's budget envisions the debt rising to $11.5 trillion by 2011. This means that an increasing share of an increasingly tight budget must be devoted simply to paying interest -- an estimated $220 billion this fiscal year alone. Remember: This is the president who entered office promising to pay off $2 trillion in debt held by the public over the next decade and said money in the Treasury is “your” money.
Far from being paid down, the debt held by the public has grown, from $3.3 trillion in 2001 to $5 trillion this year. To be fair, President Bush cannot be blamed for the cost of Hurricane Katrina, and neither can the Congress. However, both can be blamed for Alaskan bridges to nowhere, and oh so much pork mounting up in the deficit. Congress had the duty to excise unneeded spending, and the President had the duty to Veto what Congress sent him that was out of line. Both shirked their duty to the American voters.
In the end, of course, Congress will vote to raise the debt ceiling, as it must. Indeed, the House has already done so, quietly, under a rule designed to let members take that step without having any politically damaging attention called to it. This is just another clear and concise demonstration of just how ‘out-of-touch’ our elected officials are with what the founding fathers said our great country was supposed to be - BY THE PEOPLE AND FOR THE PEOPLE. Clearly, with ‘thief in the middle of the night’ legislation as with this and many other non-accountable votes of the House and Senate, its’ clear our House and Senate are not working for the people who elect them.
The Senate is to take up the issue this week, most likely just before it leaves on its latest recess; there, too, the hope of the majority is to get this unpleasant business over with as quickly as possible. But Democrats have secured an agreement to vote on several amendments, including tying the debt increase to restoring pay-as-you-go requirements on new entitlement spending or tax cuts. This is mostly for purposes of political point-scoring -- the amendment's not likely to be approved -- but that doesn't take away from the importance of doing something to get the budget under control.
Because, as the debt ceiling approaches $9 trillion, it's time to pause and consider the unabashed recklessness of the Bush administration's fiscal policies and its unwillingness to alter its tax-cutting course to accommodate new budgetary realities. "Future generations shouldn't be forced to pay back money that we have borrowed," Mr. Bush said in March 2001. "We owe this kind of responsibility to our children and grandchildren." Where is that responsibility now?
But Mr. Bush deserves only a little of the blame. The President can’t do anything budget wise unless the House and Senate let him. The blame squarely rests on the House and Senate. They should have a better feel for not only the the mood of the voters, but their best interest in mind. That, unmistakably, is not the case.
Many House and Senate members are moving away from the Presidents coat tails. But tacking unrelated legislation onto important bills; voting in the middle of the night on unrecorded voice votes so there is no record of who voted on what are a criminal corruption of the Democratic process.
At some point in time, the voting public must say, enough is enough and demand term limits, campaign reform, making all votes in Congress a recorded vote, eliminating tacking on unrelated legislation spending bills to other legislation, laws to a ban on big money campaign contributions, and most importantly, turning out to pasture Congresspersons and Senators who have stayed too long and don’t represent the people.
Both Party’s are to blame. But we, as the American electorate are more to blame by electing people who send jobs overseas, and keep on electing those who care more for corporations and oil companies that the voter.
Voters, must recognize they are masters of their own fates. As Shakespeare said: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves.....
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