MEMO FOR THE CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT
AMERICANS SAY “STOP SPENDING NOW!”
THE FEDERAL DEBT = $16,000,000,000,000 and RISING!
RE: Total U.S. debt subject to limit will reach $16 trillion probably within days. The Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) long-term budget outlook states that debt held by the public will surge to 70 percent of the economy by the end of the year. At the same time, the President and the liberal Democrat leadership in the Senate has remained completely unserious about operating government according to a reasonable budget.
THE FEDERAL DEBT HAS GROWN 50% SINCE THE BEGINNING OF 2009!
ISSUE-in-BRIEF:In just four years, President Obama has managed a $5 trillion increase in the national debt—a full trillion more than George W. Bush added in eight years. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (also known as “The Stimulus”) cost taxpayers $767.6 billion, according to Recovery.gov. The CBO explains that federal spending on health care if Obamacare remains will rise from 5.4% of the economy today to 10.4% over the next 25 years. These two signature Obama programs have added roughly a trillion a piece to federal spending. The Heritage Foundation’s J.D. Foster writes: “Federal spending as a share of the economy will average over 24 percent during Obama’s term, and each and every year of that term will see a higher share than during any year since the Second World War. That apparently qualifies as ‘significant fiscal restraint’ Obama-style.”
Where is the Presidential Leadership???
As a candidate in 2008, Obama scolded President Bush for adding to the national debt, calling him unpatriotic. At that time, the debt stood at $9 trillion. What does that make the President? His 2010 budget called for $3.67 trillion, but he got a measly $3.46 trillion out of Congress. For 2011, his budget request ballooned to $3.80 trillion, of which Congress delivered $3.6 trillion. The Washington Post Fact Checker concludes: “So in every case, the president wanted to spend more money than he ended up getting.”
Congress received the official mark-up of President Obama’s proposed budget for FY2013 in March. His budget would add $6.4 trillion in deficits between 2013 and 2022, bringing publicly held debt to 76% percent of GDP by 2022—compared to 40.5% in 2008. His spending proposal was so outrageous that Democrats and Republicans rejected it in both houses of Congress: 99-0 in the Senate and 414-0 in the House. The Democrat-controlled Senate hasn’t even proposed a budget in over three years. Bottom line: The national debt will soon top $16 trillion and neither President Obama, nor the liberal Democrat leadership in Congress, has any plan whatsoever to deal with it.
The debt is above all a non-partisan issue. It threatens not only the favorite policy priorities of Republicans and Democrats, but the ability of government as we know it to function. On the present trend, according to the CBO, the national debt will hit 90 percent of GDP by the end of the next decade. Economists consider a national debt of 90 to 100 percent of GDP the point of no return – the point at which we no longer have the luxury of ignoring our debt, as Obama and Congressional Democrats seem content to do.
As the CBO reports, rising debt may result in higher interest payments on the debt; thus increasing the probability of a sudden fiscal crisis. Given that the U.S. government will pay $323 billion in interest expenses for fiscal year 2012 alone, an uptick of just .5% in interest rates could quickly spell disaster. The magnitude of the debt would outpace the CBO’s ability to model and predict economic developments—to say nothing of the government’s ability to eventually reconcile that debt.
Some handy debt facts and talking points:
Debt per Citizen: $50,843
Debt per Taxpayer: $139,913
U.S. Debt Held by Foreign Countries: $5.4 trillion
For Additional Information on the Federal Debt, please visit the following links:
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/07/the_national_debt_is_beyond_our_comprehension.html
http://rsc.jordan.house.gov/uploadedfiles/bstf_week021512_ar.pdf
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/aug/22/cbo-feds-flirting-double-dip-recession/
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/stop-spending-our-future/
http://rsc.jordan.house.gov/uploadedfiles/pb_012311_deficithistory.pdf
http://rsc.jordan.house.gov/uploadedfiles/pb_prioritization_60112.pdf
http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/budget/230901-cbo-warns-of-grim-long-term-debt-outlook
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0312/74109.html
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/histdebt.htm
http://www.usgovernmentdebt.us/
http://rsc.jordan.house.gov/uploadedfiles/bstf_week60612-final.pdf
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2012-01-08/debt-equals-economy/52460208/1
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/06/14/president-obama-is-not-innocent-in-rapidly-exploding-debt/
http://reason.com/blog/2009/04/08/reasontv-stop-spending-our-fut
Conservative Action Project Memo
The Conservative Action Project, chaired by former Attorney General Edwin Meese, is designed to facilitate conservative leaders working together on behalf of common goals. Participants include the CEO’s of over 100 organizations representing all major elements of the conservative movement—economic, social and national security.
Duane Parde, President, National Taxpayers Union
Colin Hanna, President, Let Freedom Ring
Chris Chocola, President, Club for Growth
Grover Norquist, President, Americans for Tax Reform
David Williams, Taxpayers Protection Alliance
Tony Perkins, President, Family Research Council
William Wilson, President, Americans for Limited Government
Brent Bozell, President, Media Research Center
Alfred Regnery, President, The Paul Revere Project
C. Preston Noell, President, Tradition, Family Property
Elaine Donnelly, President, Center for Military Readiness
Lewis Uhler, President, National Taxpayers Limitation Committee
Andrea Lafferty, President, Traditional Values Coalition
Ron Robinson, President, Young America’s Foundation
Heather Higgins, President, Independent Women’s Voice
Dr. Herbert London, President Emeritus, Hudson Institute
Edwin Meese III, former Attorney General
James Miller III, former Reagan Budget Director
J. Kenneth Blackwell, Chairman, Coalition for a Conservative Majority
Peter Thomas, Chairman, The Conservative Caucus
Al Cardenas, Chairman, American Conservative Union
Richard Viguerie, Chairman, ConservativeHQ.com
Mathew D. Staver, Chairman, Liberty Counsel Action
Rev. Louis Sheldon, Chairman Traditional Values Coalition
James Martin, Chairman, 60 Plus Association
Susan Carleson, Chairman & CEO, American Civil Rights Union
Tom Winter, Editor-in-Chief Emeritus, Human Events
Penny Nance, CEO, Concerned Women for America
Michael Needham Chief Executive Officer, Heritage Action for America
Bob Reccord, Executive Director, Council for National Policy
Bill Pascoe, Senior Vice President, Citizens for the Republic
(All organizations listed for Identification purposes only)
