(From Gary Bauer)
America is going broke. The national debt now exceeds $12 trillion and is growing at rates unmatched since WWII. We've amassed massive unfunded promises to guarantee future entitlement benefits, which, added to liabilities like debt, total nearly $57 trillion. If Congress does not address this issue, it won't be long before every penny of the federal budget will be used just to pay for interest on the debt and entitlement spending.
There would be no money for critical priorities like national defense, homeland security and medical research. The dollar would lose its status as the primary international reserve currency, meaning that everything that is traded internationally, such as food and oil, would increase in price. Deficits choke the investment needed to create jobs. And our biggest bankers – countries like China and Saudi Arabia – are hardly friends.
Leaders of both political parties have been reluctant to acknowledge the severity of this issue and to take the necessary action to curtail spending. Congress' paralysis comes at great cost to our children and grandchildren. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) has an idea to address our growing fiscal crisis that deserves consideration.
The Securing America's Future Economy Commission Act (SAFE – H.R. 1557) would establish a bipartisan commission to look at all federal spending -- constitutionally mandated expenditures, entitlement programs, tax policy, and more. The Commission, modeled after the federal base closing process, would hold public meetings across the country to hear from the American people and then develop a series of recommendations to improve the nation's financial health. Then Congress would be required to vote up or down on the panel's proposals.
Congress has shown itself to be incapable of tackling overspending, and it will take a mechanism with teeth to ensure action. SAFE has more than 100 co-sponsors, yet the congressional leadership has failed to bring this critical measure to the floor for a vote. Click here to see if your representative is co-sponsoring the SAFE Act. Then call Congress at 202-224-3121 and urge the leadership to act in the best interest of the country.
****************************
There would be no money for critical priorities like national defense, homeland security and medical research. The dollar would lose its status as the primary international reserve currency, meaning that everything that is traded internationally, such as food and oil, would increase in price. Deficits choke the investment needed to create jobs. And our biggest bankers – countries like China and Saudi Arabia – are hardly friends.
Leaders of both political parties have been reluctant to acknowledge the severity of this issue and to take the necessary action to curtail spending. Congress' paralysis comes at great cost to our children and grandchildren. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) has an idea to address our growing fiscal crisis that deserves consideration.
The Securing America's Future Economy Commission Act (SAFE – H.R. 1557) would establish a bipartisan commission to look at all federal spending -- constitutionally mandated expenditures, entitlement programs, tax policy, and more. The Commission, modeled after the federal base closing process, would hold public meetings across the country to hear from the American people and then develop a series of recommendations to improve the nation's financial health. Then Congress would be required to vote up or down on the panel's proposals.
Congress has shown itself to be incapable of tackling overspending, and it will take a mechanism with teeth to ensure action. SAFE has more than 100 co-sponsors, yet the congressional leadership has failed to bring this critical measure to the floor for a vote. Click here to see if your representative is co-sponsoring the SAFE Act. Then call Congress at 202-224-3121 and urge the leadership to act in the best interest of the country.
****************************
When 18 year old Peter Torjesen"heard the call to evangelize China, he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2
