This year the Congressional Budget Office estimates the US
Federal Government will spend $425 billion dollars more than it takes in. On
the books, that deficit is projected to grow and in 10 years the total debt is estimated
to exceed 22 trillion. In addition, off the books there are Social Security,
Medicare, the VA and other programs that Congress has promised but failed to
set money aside for. All combined the US Debt Clock organization estimates the
total debt including these unfunded liabilities at 97.1 trillion dollars or
about $302,000 per US citizen.
Clearly this debt level is unsustainable. It should be just
as clear that we cannot at present trust our representatives in the US Congress
to address the problem since it is that very institution that created this debt
by spending more than it has taken in 45 of the last 50 years.
Fortunately, we live in a country where the people and their
States have the Constitutional right and power to reform the US Government in
fundamental ways. And right now there is an effort on in Lansing to pass an
amendment to the US Constitution that would require Congress to pass balanced
budgets.
State Bill 306 (SB306) supports an Article 5 Compact among
the States that would require Congress to vote on an Amendment to the US
Constitution limiting how much the federal government can borrow, and otherwise
restricting federal spending to cash revenues. The initiative is supported by
an Interstate Commission with representatives from the four states that have
passed it so far.
The Compact has a long way to go as it must be passed by 34
more States before it can result in an amendment, but 44 States including
Michigan already have Constitutions that limit their borrowing capacity or
require their Legislatures to pass balanced budgets. There are receptive
legislatures across the country and across political divides.
For the Compact to pass, enough citizens have to realize
that no one benefits from a situation where the US Government is allowed to
borrow without limit. They must ask their State Legislatures to vote for a
change.
Regardless of whether you feel government should be larger
or smaller, a balanced budget amendment by itself won’t push the US Government
in either direction just as balancing our own families budget does not dictate
the size of house that we live in.
What passage of the Compact will do is to stop the US
Government from kicking the can down the road.
The wasteful spending that Republican and Democratic-led
Congresses have engaged in for the last 50-years has weakened our country in
more ways than can be expressed in one column. Just ask yourself how much has
been wasted and lost in the last half dozen wars and “police actions,” the many
bailouts of corporations and financial institutions, and the funding of
unproductive welfare programs. Ask yourself if we would have tolerated such bad
public policy if we were unable to just charge the costs to a limitless
national credit card. The answer is pretty obvious if you think about it. Our
toleration of bad public policy would be much less if we actually had to pay
for it out of taxes or a limited amount of credit. Unlimited debt has enabled
and will continue to enable bad government.
We really have no choice but to Compact for a Balanced
Budget if we want to minimize future fiascos.
To support the Compact contact the offices of Senate
Majority Leader Arlan Meekhoff (517-373-6920 or
SenAMeekhof@senate.michigan.gov) and Senate Majority Floor Leader Mike Kowall
(517-373-1758) and let them know you want SB306 to come to the Senate floor for
a full vote. Then ask State Legislators from your own district to support the
bill.
Together we can hold the US Government to a higher standard.
Support the Compact for a Balanced Budget.
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