Maybe the House Got the Message - Granite Grok

Maybe the House Got the Message

Perhaps the House of Representatives did get the message from last November‘s election and from polls indicating that Americans are serious about cutting deficit spending.  On Tuesday, in a bi-partisan vote (82 Democrats,  236 Republicans) the House overwhelmingly rejected President Obama’s request to unconditionally increase the debt ceiling.  Only 97 Democrats voted to continue reckless spending.  

Despite alarmist claims about not raising the debt ceiling, the Secretary of the Treasury can dispense its approximately $2 trillion revenues on a priority basis.  Our country need not default on our debt or fail to pay the military, seniors, the poor, or other critical obligations UNLESS OBAMA’s administration CHOOSES NOT TO MAKE THOSE PAYMENTS. 


Agreeing on the spending cuts is, of course, the harder step.  Some constituency wants every government dollar.  Most  constituencies have lobbyists with cash and campaign support who solicit support from our legislators every day.  Only the people fail to have strong lobbyists in Washington.  So, thank goodness for the TEA Parties who represent hard working American taxpayers and speak strongly for fiscal responsibility. 

The first indication that the House is listening to the people was the passage of the House budget on April 15.  This budget made significant spending cuts.  The Senate apparently has not heard the people’s cries for fiscal responsibility as five Republicans joined the Democrats to vote against this budget.  They didn’t bother to try to fix the budget to make it acceptable, they just voted “No”.               

The Senate treated the House budget better than President Obama’s budget which was rejected by a vote of 0 for and 97 against.  One wonders if the Democrat controlled Senate is interested in fulfilling its requirement to pass an annual budget. 

The Democrat controlled Congress did not pass a budget in the previous two years.  Lack of a budget has allowed Democrats to avoid the public scrutiny associated with creating, negotiating and passing a budget.  The result has been reckless spending and record deficits that jeopardize our nation‘s fiscal health. 

To avoid a fiscal crisis like Greece and Ireland, our country must stop its reckless deficit spending.  Some people say don’t cut spending, raise taxes.  That is counter-productive as taxation changes behavior, people will work less, earn less, and taxes won’t reach the expected levels.  There are claims that even if you taxed away all this year’s income from billionaires, millionaires, and all people earning over $100,000 you would still not have raised enough money to eliminate this year’s deficit.  If this is even close to being true, and I am sure it is, then raising taxes isn’t the answer.  (Of course a 100 percent tax rate would cause the next year’s tax revenue to plummet.) Our country’s real problem is that it spends too much money.

Hopefully the Senate and the President will join the House of Representatives and seriously cut spending.  The alternative, continued reckless spending, will eventually result in a financial crisis that will make the 2008 crisis look like a hiccup.   When that happens, almost every American will be seriously hurt, including workers, seniors, homemakers, children, people on welfare, and future generations.                        

All Americans certainly want to avoid the hurt that will come to themselves, their families and other people from another and worse financial crisis.  Tell the Senate and President Obama to work with the House to significantly cut spending.  Tell them that we are all ready to equitably share the sacrifice needed to put our country onto a financially responsible path.  Tell them to act quickly, as the problem gets harder to solve every day! 

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