I sent this letter to Congress urging them to OPPOSE raising the debt ceiling.
We encourage you to do the same, and you may borrow from or copy what I wrote . . .
Then-Senator Barrack Obama got it right in 2006, when he said (http://on.wsj.com/h6Jlxi)
“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here.’ Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America’s debt limit.”
But President Obama hasn’t been as smart as Senator Obama was. Instead, President Obama supported huge spending programs to “stimulate” the economy. These programs failed, and we got socked with a triple-whammy of high debt, high unemployment, AND high inflation.
Worse, on Monday S&P downgraded the U.S. credit rating from stable to negative. http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2011/04/18/release-sp-cuts-u-s-ratings-outlook-to-negative/
If you increase the debt limit WITHOUT making steep spending cuts and budget reforms, the credit rating will get worse. Investors won’t purchase Treasury debt. The world’s markets may abandon the dollar.
Please do NOT raise the debt limit. Doing so not only threatens our credit rating, but it’s also the same as raising taxes on our children and grandchildren. It’s “taxation without representation.”
Moreover, revenues will still come in even if you freeze the debt limit. You can . . .
- Fund the peaceful and orderly withdrawal of our troops from overseas
- Pay the interest on the national debt
- Maintain payments for Social Security
You can then cut waste, reform some programs, and eliminate others . . .
- End futile wars and cut the Pentagon budget by two-thirds. This will save $600 billion per year and still leave us with a defense budget twice the size of China’s.
- Reduce the long-term costs of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. This CAN still be done without kicking anyone to the curb.
- Eliminate unconstitutional spending on corporate welfare, education, and agriculture subsidies.
- Abolish agencies that are dedicated to harassing American citizens, like the TSA and DEA.
- Reduce regulations that stifle innovation and business expansion.
- Cut the budgets for all other departments and programs to force frugality and efficiency.
Cutting government spending is the best stimulus because it frees up resources for business growth.
Don’t be fooled by scare tactics. Do NOT raise taxes on our children.
Congress needs to take URGENT ACTION to fix the U.S. credit rating. Do NOT raise the debt ceiling!
You can send your letter using DownsizeDC.org’s Educate the Powerful System.
And we invite you to follow us on Twitter and re-tweet this to your followers: http://twitter.com/DDCDispatch
Jim Babka, President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.
