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Friday, 05 February 2010
The road to hell is paved with good intentions and thus far our country’s fiscal health has been marred by the “good intentions” of politicians on both sides of the aisle – from budget deficits, bank bailouts, stimulus programs, and increases in Medicare to tunnels for turtles, boats for Hawaii, and “cash for clunkers.”
The President recommends starting a spending freeze in 2011? That’s like a chain smoker or alcoholic saying they will quit tomorrow. If our government was serious about the state of our national debt, they’d stop the spending now. And the President’s comment that, “Spending related to […] Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security will not be affected;” those three programs on their own as they currently stand could single-handedly bankrupt our country. According to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, currently headed by CEO David Walker – former Comptroller General of the United States under Presidents Clinton and Bush (43):
With the oldest of 78 million baby boomers starting to retire, the sum of America’s unfunded liabilities and off-the-balance sheet entitlement promises currently exceeds three times the size of the entire U.S. economy. Medicare and Social Security alone amount to more than $40 trillion. And, the sum grows by an estimated $2 trillion to $3 trillion per year. Today, people are encouraged to spend more than one-third of their entire adult lives in retirement, reducing the share of benefits available to the truly old and needy.
We as a nation have to sit up and recognize the difference between what we want our government to do and whether we have the means to pay for it. Our current state of “bi-partisanship” has lead to both parties squandering our finances on programs they want while in control simply because they can with little thought given to how to pay for it—there are just too many unfunded liabilities. One comment from the President’s State of the Union made this quite clear:
There’s no reason Europe or China should have the fastest trains […] Tomorrow, I’ll visit Tampa, Florida, where workers will soon break ground on a new high-speed railroad funded by the Recovery Act.
The difference is that we’re not paying for China’s debt, but China is paying for over 10% of ours – almost $800 billion as of 2009 according to the Congressional Budget Office. That is quadruple the amount held by China in 2004 - $209 billion – in only 5 years. In addition, our existing rail system is already the subject of controversy dating back to the formation of Amtrak in 1971. It was the bailout of its time, saving union jobs through its creation, but at what cost to the American people? In 2006 and 2007 Congress provided Amtrak a $1.294 billion government subsidy according to The Heritage Foundation.
By contrast, Amtrak has asked Congress for $1.680 billion for FY 2008—a significant increase over the FY 2007 subsidy—but unlike the previous year's request, this year's makes no particular commitment to implement major reforms. Indeed, at a time when it should be attempting to follow the airlines' successful lead and seek reductions in the wages of Amtrak's overpaid workforce ($54,000 per year plus tips for snack car workers), Amtrak's new president announced early this year that he will "Strive to achieve labor agreements providing reasonable wage increases."
Projected costs for the new train line mentioned by the President are nearly $1.3 billion assuming the contractor finished on-time and on-budget—money we just don’t have.
When did the government’s role include bankrupting our nation, inflating the US currency, and leaving taxpaying Americans with the burden of the bill? When can Americans expect Republican “leaders” like Congressman Brady get on the attack and challenge some of the proposed policies of the current Congress? It is hard to justify attacking Geithner when you’re one of the individuals who voted for the bank bailout in the first place. Spending has been out of control for a long time – where was our Congressman when Paulson was in charge of the Treasury, before Brady had a challenger in the upcoming Republican Primary on March 2nd?
I plan to trash the jobs bill, cap and trade legislation, stimulus packages and bailouts and simply cut taxes and eliminate the spending altogether. When the government eliminates taxes the rich, poor and middle class all benefit. More money in the taxpayers’ pockets means money is invested, spent, or saved - all of which have positive benefits on our stagnant economy. No matter where the tax cut, there is a net benefit. If you choose to spend it all and not save, that’s your choice, but not my responsibility. America is tired of failed leadership and bad legislation.
There is too much fraud, abuse and reliance on a system that was originally intended to only help those that truly need it. As the President said, “The only reason we are here is because generations of Americans were unafraid to do what was hard; to do what was needed even when success was uncertain; to do what it took to keep the dream of this nation alive for their children and their grandchildren.” It won’t be easy to cut programs, but as a nation we have to take responsibility for ourselves and stop relying on the entitlement programs of the Federal government.
Sunday, 24 January 2010
Last week, the US Senate proposed an increase of the federal debt limit by $1.9 trillion dollars to $14.3 trillion dollars total. Over the last decade, both Republican and Democrat controlled Congresses have allowed spending to go out of control. Several "credit limit increases" were necessary to continue supporting the spending habits of our Representatives and now they, and the White House want more.
In March of 2006, Congress raised the Federal debt limit to $9 trillion, which was the fourth time in five years (beginning in 2001 when the US debt limit was only $5.6 trillion dollars). Understandably, foreign countries buying the treasury bills and bonds that support our government's spending grew nervous about the ability of the American government to pay off the debt. The situation was exacerbated by the events to come. In October of 2008, the federal debt limit broke $10 trillion, and the "national debt clock", maintained by the Durst Organization, ran out of digits. America is now in a recession and will run higher deficits this year.
In 2006, then Senator Barack Obama voted against an increase in the debt limit, saying, "America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership." Congress echoed his concern, but has done nothing to stop the problem. In fact, spending was accelerated. Even now, when America owes more than $12 trillion dollars, the White House and now President Obama has requested another increase. ABC News reported,
"The administration strongly supports passage of an increase in the public debt limit," the White House said in a statement. "Such an increase is critically important to make sure that financing of federal government operations can continue without interruption and that the creditworthiness of the United States is not called into question." The nation's overall debt now stands at more than $12.3 trillion after soaring over the $12 trillion mark for the first time ever last November. (ABCNEWS, Jan 20, 2010).
The problem is that the creditworthiness of the United States is already in question and is becoming a problem that will be irresolvable unless changes are made in the next election. Bottom line, simple accounting shows that debt increases when net expenses are greater than net income. Even with 100% taxation the government could not raise enough money to cover the spending being discussed on the floor of the House this year, so increasing income is not an effective solution. Simple deduction states that spending must be cut. The graph below illustrates how spending has been out of control since the 1970s and does not even include the huge deficits of the last 5 years.
Figure 1. Gross Federal Debt Compared to the U.S. Economy. (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5282521)
When will Congress realize that spending is the problem? When can the People of the United States rely upon their Representatives to follow the same principles that families in their Districts must follow month-to-month? Instead of just voting against increases to the federal debt limit, I propose new legislation that forces Congress to use common sense, cut unnecessary and un-Constitutional Federal programs, balance the Federal budget, and stop jeopardizing the financial security of the American people.
Revisit the blog next week when I begin to outline some of the programs I would end when elected.
Friday, 04 December 2009
No shock and awe this week. It is, however, shockingly awful what has been allowed to happen to our men and women in the Armed Forces. Our President finally made a decision to send 30,000 troops to supplement our current troop levels in Afghanistan. The decision to send more troops took the President exactly 95 days. I remember a General Patton quote from my training at the Air Force Academy that read, “A good plan now is better than a perfectly executed plan next week.” Why did the President wait so long to respond? In his well written report, General McChrystal clearly requests at least 40,000-80,000 additional troops and states the urgency. Why doesn’t the President trust the opinion of the leaders he appointed to lead the war effort? If he did, 40,000 troops would be en route to Afghanistan. The President’s decision to send 25% less troops than what the commander stated was needed to keep our soldiers safe and achieve the goals set forth in our strategy was yet another example of the ineptitude of those governing our country. To make matters worse, our incumbent, Kevin Brady, endorsed the President’s decision this week during an interview with KTRH 740AM when he said, “I thought he was right on target…he laid out a sound strategy”.
I recently attended an air show at Alliance Field in Fort Worth, Texas. While there I happened to run into several classmates from the Air Force Academy who were at the show performing in their F-15s. The F-15 crews and I took some time to discuss the needs of the Air Force and to talk about the day-to-day lives of those still on Active Duty. While we were talking, they raised my awareness of all the impacts of Congress’ recent decision to cut the F-22 fighter aircraft from the Department of Defense budget. The Air Force took delivery of approximately 25% of the original order of the newest, most advanced fighter aircraft on the planet. The few fighters that were acquired are needed to replace the aging F-15 aircraft (many were built in 1972). The F-15s are aging quickly due to high operations tempo and require frequent maintenance, the funds for which are limited by Congress. More importantly our old technology can be outmatched by new foreign fighters. Currently the United States has approximately 178 F-15 aircraft that are expected to be used beyond 2025, the others will be sent to scrap.
Because the Air Force did not receive the support of our Congress, the fighter pilot community is now being restructured to accommodate for a 75% reduction. The pilots who are not selected to stay in the airframe or retrain in the few F-22s available will be asked to augment the Army or step into other roles in the Air Force. The American taxpayers have paid nearly $2.5 million dollars per pilot for training. To send highly specialized, trained pilots to jobs requiring anything but flying is unacceptable. Our national security is at risk without more fighter jets and pilots to fly them—air superiority is paramount. Air superiority ensures that our ground forces remain safe and that the skies are clear of threats.
If Congress continues to deny the military the support and upgrades it needs, then what is the point of keeping our men and women in harm’s way? Servicemen and women putting their lives on the line and our government is failing to support them fully.
Our federal government needs to respect the opinion of the appointed military leaders and should ensure that necessary upgrades and augmented troop levels as requested are supplied in a timely fashion. Don’t let our military go unassisted.
Tuesday, 10 November 2009
Who else is tired of listening to the media dictate the crisis du jour and talk about problems created to distract America from real problems. Without fail the media fails to take note of the long-term problems facing our country. The media has tried to lead US to believe that the country’s lack of socialized medicine has created an insurance crisis, the economy has crashed and has caused an unemployment crisis, the earth’s climate is changing and is causing a crisis for all mankind and polar bears, and H1N1 is causing a crisis because it could be the next pandemic.
It seems that everyday there is a new crisis that the US Congress and Obama’s administration seem to try to tackle. Because of the executive branch’s attitude of “never waste a good crisis,” our lawmakers feel that creating and tackling crises will help the American public forget what the real problem is.
NEWS FLASH to career politicians... we have not forgotten what is most important over the next year—electing a new Congress that will end the seemingly never ending cycle of corruption, bigger government, and destruction of the values and principles of the US Constitution and our founding fathers.
Corrupt government officials are the voter’s primary problem in 2010. Our Representatives have been serving only one purpose for the last several decades—filling their campaign coffers, working deals in the cover of darkness, selling out their principles, and ensuring that anyone who may try to rise to end the cycle will be easily destroyed.
The People of Texas were awakened when their elected representatives voted for bailouts, ensuring the largest banks in our country were able to continue unethical and generally poor business practices. Why would Congress vote to bailout the banks of Wall Street? Were the principles of our Congressional representatives traded for campaign donations and promises from Wall Street executives and large corporations?
As if bailouts of the private sector were not enough, Congress expanded the role of the federal government with a stimulus package, followed by the passage of the largest federal budget and hence deficit ever seen by our nation. Inflation of the US money supply, needed to ensure the Congress could cover the massive deficits, has caused our hard earned money to lose nearly one-third of its value over the last 7 years.
The retirement accounts of our senior citizens have declined. Now because of depreciating investments, retirees cannot afford to live comfortably due to weakened value. Money invested by parents for their children’s college education is losing value and current trends indicate that parents will not be able to afford tuition. All the while, Republican and Democrat representatives have failed to give any real oversight to the system they are charged with governing. Both parties are guilty of expanding the role of the federal government.
Republican leaders of the House Ways and Means allowed the federal spending to increase by nearly 50%. Democrats are proposing further expansion of the federal government by means of Cap & Trade and single payer health care systems that will make the years with only $200 Billion dollars of deficit look like sunny days in American history.
Current US Federal Debt (approximately $11.92 Trillion dollars) is sold to foreign countries at reasonable interest rates. China, the member countries of OPEC, and Japan have been extremely generous over the last two decades, buying nearly every bond and bill issued by the Federal Reserve. What happens when these countries decide to stop buying our debts that allow the massive deficits? What money will be used to finance programs that Americans have grown reliant upon like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid? If these countries and organizations fail to believe that the American government can repay the bills at maturity, the lifestyle that Americans currently enjoy will abruptly end. Congress must make critical changes now to end its record of irresponsibility.
Patriots must now move to the front lines to usher an era of accountability. New leaders must be commissioned to ensure that federal spending is cut substantially, tax burdens lowered, and capitalism fostered to generate a sound economic recovery. Incumbents everywhere have failed to see beyond the immediate crisis to solve the problems of tomorrow. Myopic thought processes and corruption have taken their destructive course. Incumbents who think they are safe now realize that Americans have learned that re-election of the same representatives will only ensure that America sees more of the same over the next decade! America cannot afford to be managed by a Congress and President willing to abuse taxpayers in order to secure their power and positions.
In 2010, successful campaigns are about the business of Restoring our Republic! The values of our founding fathers–Life, Liberty, and Property– will be extricated from the corruption that has bound the hands of the American people for the last several decades. Incumbents are about to be held accountable for what they have done, regardless of their party affiliation or recent voting history.
America it is time to wake up and join the fight to hold Congress accountable!
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Primary Countdown
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The primary for District 8 Congressman is
March 2, 2010 at 7 am.
Early voting starts February 16.
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The First 9/12 Candidate in Texas |
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