Balanced Budget & Federal Spending

Balanced Budget & Federal Spending

In testimony before Congress, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, said the greatest threat to our sovereignty is not Iran; not al-Qaeda; not radical Islam—it’s our national debt.  Most people don’t think of spending in terms of a threat to our sovereignty; and those who do, are rarely so blunt.  But Admiral Mullen is right.  We simply cannot continue to operate at this pace.

Our national debt stands at a jaw-dropping $16 trillion. Foreign holdings account for almost half of these obligations, and much of that is owed to countries that are not always friendly to us, such as China and Saudi Arabia.  This puts our nation’s future in a very precarious position.

If these facts aren’t alarming enough, consider this: we borrow around 41 cents of every dollar we spend.  This year alone, the federal government will spend $3.7 trillion while only collecting $2.2 trillion. 

The average American family doesn’t have the luxury to live by this sort of budgeting.  If you or I tried to run our household this way, the bank would cut us off.  It is time we apply that lesson to Washington.  It is time we cut the government off.

The only way will we get a handle on this situation is to reform the manner in which we budget and allocate federal dollars.  It is time we institute a mechanism, like a Balanced Budget Amendment, that will stop the government from spending beyond its means.   This is the reason why one of the first pieces of legislation I cosponsored as a U.S. Senator was a Balanced Budget Amendment.  If Arkansas can be required to balance our state’s budget, there is no reason that we shouldn’t be able to require Washington to do the same.

We are at a crossroads in our country.  If we continue down the path we are on, we risk going the direction of Greece, Ireland and Portugal, each facing economic crises that have pushed them to brink of default. 

If Congress continues the reckless spending, rather than crafting an immediate solution to this crisis, we will inevitably end with an economic collapse.  We can’t keep kicking the can down the road.  The “tax, borrow, spend” philosophy is not creating jobs; it is only creating more debt for our children and grandchildren. 

We owe it to the generations of Americans who’ve made sacrifices in order for our country to prosper and that means working together to solve our problems.  I am committed to working with my colleagues to correct this course our nation is on by reining in the reckless spending in Washington and putting our nation back on a fiscally responsible path.

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