We've heard a lot of talk coming out of Washington these last few weeks about the national debt, and, especailly from the radical right, about "making government spend within their means." While no fan of government waste, the latest hare-brained idea idea to come from the Tea Party-led GOP really takes the cake.
Sometime next week Senate republicans intend to bring to the floor a 'Balanced Budget' Amendment that, presumably, would force the Federal government to spend no more money than what it takes in.
At face value, the idea has some appeal... after all, American families can't spend more than they take in, right?
Well, actually, the answer is "no."
Average Americans thrive on credit, and the United States' government does, too. That's why our Founding Fathers specifically spelled out in unambiguous terms that the government could - and therefore should be able to - borrow on credit (Article One, Section 8).
Why, then, would Senate republicans want to discard the wisdom of the men who wrote the U.S. Constitution, and openly advocate for one of the cornerstones of the Confederate Constitution?
Well, as it turns out, there's "debt", and then there's "DEBT".
One is spending money we don't have, now, and the other is spending money we won't have, ever.
Senate Republicans want the American people to convieniently forget that our national debt jumped to the astronomical (at the time) number of $6 trillion after the Bush tax cuts were enacted in 2002.
"Don't worry," we were told, then: wealthy Americans will use their tax breaks to create good paying jobs, and the tax revenues from those new jobs will fill up the empty coffers.
6 years later (2008), and the national debt had climbed to $11 trillion, with nothing to show for it - the promised tax revenues having never materialized.
Fast-forward past TARP I, TARP II, and the Rebuilding America Act - which, incidentally, was another tax break package - and we have one helluva budget deficit ($14 trillion), and a Republican Party that doesn't want to repeal the very tax breaks that caused the lion's share of the deficit in the first place, and is openly campaigning to dismantle Social Security and Medicare.
Now, after maxing out the nation's credit cards, the GOP wants to rip them all up, and send the nation's bill to those who are the least able to pay, and were oh-so trusting when the Republicans sold them the idea of the "do-nothing" Bush tax cuts in the first place?
We think not.
A better plan than denying the nation the ability to borrow on credit would be to pay what it is that we owe, and if that means repealing those tax breaks the GOP loves so very much, so be it.
Its called "taking responsibility" - something the GOP pays lip service to, but seldom lives up to.
Del Wasso,
A community organizer for the Rockford Sons of Liberty
https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=105871316101932
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