What I want the 112th Congress to Do (Part 2)

2. Get the damn spending under control! For me, this comes in two phases. The first is to pass the 2011 spending bill, which should have been passed several months ago, and still nowhere near ready for “primetime”. The federal gov’t has been working under continuing resolutions since Oct. I know there was an attempt to pass the spending bill during the lame duck session, but it was flawed with outgo more than the projected income, which was not satisfactory to the American people.

Second, they need to do something about the debt ceiling. Within the next few weeks our national debt will exceed $14T (yes, the “T” does equal a trillion). The federal gov’t is currently working under a $14.3 T debt ceiling which will probably met this spring. So far, I have not heard any concrete numbers for a possible new debt ceiling but more than likely it will be well north of $15T.  Imagine that. In the middle of Bush’s second term the National Debt was south of $8T, and within four years the Dem control Congress and (White House for two of those years) have managed to increase the debt by 60%. Bush was a notorious big spender, but he is a pup compared to Princess Pelosi when it comes to spending our tax dollars without a second thought.

There are some who are saying if Congress votes NOT to raise the debt ceiling it would have a significant negative impact on our economy. Click here to read what the chairman of the US Council of Economic Advisors, Austan Goolsbee, has to say about it.

I think I might be going against the conservative tide here a bit, but I do think the debt ceiling should be raised one more time. But along with this raise there needs to be across the board cuts in spending in all areas. Even defense needs to take their share of cuts. Orders for equipment (tanks, planes, etc.) not associated with protecting service member lives (body armor, bullets, etc.) need to be restructured so the spending is spread out over a few extra years. If the contractors don’t like, cancel the project completely. Welfare needs to take a hit. Transportation projects that are current funded by not underway need to be stretched an extra year or two (less employment impact this way). And the Health Care bill needs to go the way of the dodo. Most of all, if there is to be an increase in spending in one area, then a like cut in spending needs to happen elsewhere. There is going to be pain, most certainly. But there will be pain no matter how we approach this. We can’t keep spending the way we have been. That is unsustainable.