America has a spending problem. Our national debt is racing towards the $15 trillion mark each and every day because of a culture of irresponsible spending in Washington. Throughout the ongoing Obama Recession, Americans have had to sit around the kitchen table and make hard cuts to their household budgets – Washington must do the same.
Nate Beeler / Washington Examiner (click to view more cartoons by Beeler)
We live in an age where America’s national debt has gotten so out of control that former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen has said the national debt is America’s number one national security problem. Think about that. The leader of America’s armed forces believes that our debt is more of a security risk than the threat of terrorism. Washington must get its spending under control or we will begin to look more like Greece than America.
Unfortunately, with President Obama’s failed “Green Jobs” program, the status quo continues. For good reason, the American people have no confidence in this administration’s handling of taxpayer funds. What’s worse is that in the face of the Solyndra debacle, the Obama Administration signed off on billions of dollars more in green energy loan guarantees last week. The arrogance and irresponsibility of this administration never ceases to amaze me. President Obama should be halting these bad ideas, but instead he lets his Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, run amok with the taxpayers’ checkbook.
Incredulously, the President has said through his spokesman that he has “full confidence” in the Energy Secretary, which sends a signal to the rest of the federal government that grossly wasting federal dollars is not a fireable offense. Is this the message the President should be sending? We are a country that cannot afford this cavalier spending, and Secretary Chu should be held accountable and forced to resign.
Thankfully, some in Congress are heeding the call for fiscal reform and introducing legislation that will actually cut rather than spend taxpayers’ money. New legislation introduced by Tennessee Congressman Marsha Blackburn will cap spending levels for Fiscal Years 2013 and 2014 at Fiscal Year 2012 spending levels. Under the Budget Control Act that was passed this past summer, spending automatically increases by $4 billion next fiscal year and $23 billion the fiscal year after that. The Blackburn legislation is a commonsense solution to stop these blind spending increases, and will save the American taxpayer $27 billion.
The House of Representatives has taken some significant steps this year to curb government spending. However, those steps have not translated into real action thanks to Harry Reid’s control over the United States Senate, and President Obama’s insistence on trying the same old liberal policies that got us into this fiscal mess in the first place. The Blackburn legislation does not tackle the major cuts on entitlement spending that are necessary to get America’s fiscal house in order. It does however set down a marker to see if members of Congress are serious about taking the necessary steps to put America back on the road towards prosperity and fiscal responsibility.
Future generations of Americans will suffer the consequences of the inaction of this generation when it comes to the national debt. Our government has a small window of time to act, but I do not have a high level of confidence since President Obama and Democrats in Congress are more worried about reelection than solving problems.
President Obama had his own “malaise” moment when he said last week America has turned “soft.” I beg to differ, but it is the modus operandi of President Obama to blame everybody else for his mistakes. Now he is blaming the American people for his failed liberal policies that have bankrupt America. It’s Jimmy Carter and 1979 all over again.
