July 25, 2011

Letter Sent to State Representatives and Senators

RE:  The Debate About Raising The U.S. Debt Ceiling

Dear US Representatives:

This letter is the first in a series that communicates the position of tax paying members of the Bedford, NH Money Club on a number of pressing issues before the U.S. Congress.  The Bedford Money Club is a women’s financial literacy group affiliated with the Women’s Institute for Financial Education (WIFE.org)—the oldest non-profit dedicated to improving the personal financial literacy of women.  The Club eschews politics, but felt compelled to write these letters because we are appalled at how poorly governments are being managed at all levels in this country.  As citizens of a “donor” state that receives $0.71 for every $1.00 we send to Washington, we’re especially unhappy about the current situation.

Our first letter expresses our position on the debate concerning raising the U.S. debt ceiling.  We have been told that raising the U.S. debt ceiling is essential to preserving the AAA credit rating of the United States of America.  Consequently, we support raising the U.S. debt ceiling.  However, our support is contingent upon Congress immediately implementing significant budget and deficit cuts, rather than delaying these cuts until after the 2012 election year. You work for us, and we want to be in a position to fire you in 2012 if you fail to shrink the budget and debt as we have requested.  We do not want our country in this financial position ever again.  

We further explain our rationale in the letter that follows.

1. Don’t increase our National Debt:  The U.S. Debt Ceiling has been raised 80 times since 1940, and each time, policy makers have failed to take steps to bring spending in line with what the country can afford without becoming enslaved to foreign governments that might use this leverage against our national interests.   Raising the debt ceiling makes it harder for Americans to retain our freedom and control over how our money is to be spent.  Also, we lack confidence that our representatives will follow any increase in the U.S. Debt Ceiling with significant cuts to current and future budgets that would lead to a permanent reduction of this debt.  If you raise the debt ceiling, we want budget and deficit cuts to be made prior to any increase in taxes or tax code reform to offset any increase in the National Debt.  We do not want these cuts deferred or delayed.  We want smaller government now, not ten years from now.

2. Don’t Jeopardize the AAA Credit Rating of the United States and the U.S. dollar as the world’s Reserve Currency: 

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TEA Party Principles: Stop the spending, Fiscal Responsibility, Free Markets, Rule of Law

We worked hard to get the best people in place that would carry those principles forward.  This IS the defining moment – do we let the Progressives ruin us financially, making our kids and grandkids slaves to the debt they have poured onto us, or do we stop the insanity and stop the growth of government?

Which translates to: will the Republicans, especially in the House, stand on principle or will it be the usual DC compromise?  Read this from Cato and you can easily guess:

The Boehner plan also doesn’t cut spending in a more fundamental way. It doesn’t lay out any particular programs or agencies to terminate. I’m in favor of spending caps as a secondary enforcement mechanism, but actual cuts have to come first. A caps-only plan like Boehner’s just kicks the can down the road. At best, it simply nudges future legislators to actually cut something specific.

Why doesn’t the House leadership propose real cuts? They’ve certainly got the resources and expertise to do the job. A single senator — Tom Coburn — produced a 620-page report last week detailing hundreds of programs to cut and terminate. Coburn and his staff read through thousands of articles and reports on the real-world performance of federal programs, and they made a good case for each particular cut they proposed. 

So, does the below chart show that DC has gotten the message and stopped the spending via the Boehner plan? No  Current deficit spending is $1.5 Trillion (give or take).  Does the Boehner plan stop the bleeding?    No.  The Rs are touting $3 TRILLION CUTS!  Er, over 10 years.  Translation – $300 Billion / year.  That’s IF later Congress’s stick to it…they don’t have to.  This STILL means deficit spending of $1.2 Trillion / year.

This is not what the TEA Party fought for in November – just more of the same with the Rs not convinced they have the power (even as the House Rs control the actual Purse Strings) to stand up and stand strong.  Once again, we see the wimp factor snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Once again, we see the GOP action (their votes) failing to meet their philosophy (limited government).

With no respect meant for Harry Reid, this is the reason why I would have chuckled to himself ("those rube Republicans – I STILL get to spend lots!")":

 (H/T: Cato)

Even more charts showing in what bad shape we are in here.

They were sent to do a job –

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Or, at least to this point, hasn’t been talked much at all and if so, in hushed tones – actually paying the $14.5 Trillion debt actually racked up, not to mention the piling onto it by Obama and the Democrats spending?  Instead we’ve heard about:

• The tax revenue enhancement
• Closing loopholes
• Flattening the individual and corporate rates
• Restructuring the entitlements 
• The deal is on, the deal is off, there’s a new deal
• Obama is a petulant President.
• And today, we know that Obama has been cut out of the dealing.
• And Obama is one very scared President, with the realization that he’s fast becoming a one term President

Especially if the best efforts of Pelosi, Reid, Geithner, and Obama can’t keep the GOP from a two tiered effort with a short term effort that will result in yet another vote right smack dab in the Presidential general election.

And yes, Pelosi is scratched out as she has become irrelevant.  And yes, I scratched the GOP.  Sure, it is Republicans Cantor, Boehner and McConnell that are driving the bus up front.

But they ain’t the engine – the TEA Party is.  From a rag tag collection of fed up regular type folks that started off complaining that the Govt was going to pay their neighbor’s mortgage to staging rallies attracting <tens| hundreds |tens of thousands> of people to influencing municipal, county, and state level officials and elections.

And then on to getting Federal candidates elected to both the US House and the US Senate. The TEA Party was ALWAYS the force that could derail the Progressive train-wreck-to-happen right from the get/go, and the Progressives knew it at the start.  They realized that as soon as there was no one single leadership, they were doomed – it was only a matter of time.  And this past November, the TEA Party doomed a lot of the Progressive politicians (mostly Democrats but a fair number of Republicans as well)

And it is the US House that is in the driver’s seat and Obama knows it.  And Obama knows that it is this populist uprising against his expansion of Government to full blown Socialist levels & a vast expansion of the welfare state. And this is the nexus of raising or not raising the debt ceiling:

Are we going to allow the foundational philosophy of a limited government evaporate?

Mark my words – unless the spending is racheted down NOW, at THIS point in time, there may no longer be an environment where we, rather than government, can determine our future (or our present).  The spending has to stop – either…

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