A $3.6 Trillion Burden on Posterity

By Congressman John Carter “Cherish public credit. …avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt…not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burden which we ourselves ought to bear.” – President George Washington, Farewell Address 1796 If George Washington, the “Father of our Country” were alive today, he would demand a paternity test.

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Congress just passed the highest spending, highest borrowing budget in world history, just weeks after passing the Obama Stimulus package, the biggest single government spending project since Khufu ordered up the Great Pyramid. Combined, this drunken spree of spending has created more public debt since the presidential inauguration on January 20 than the public debt of every other U.S. President in history - combined. We haven’t just placed a burden upon posterity as Washington feared – we’ve strapped an unbearable yoke on our children and grandchildren. General Washington would still be proud that his legacy lives on in Central Texas. In the email poll of the 31st Congressional District taken Tuesday, March 31, 81% of the 5,000 folks who participated said they opposed this massive spending bill. How massive is it? A couple weeks back we compared the spending practices of the Obama Administration and the Democrat House and Senate with those of the average Texas family. The true financial irresponsibility of the Stimulus Bill we were debating at that time became crystal clear under that comparison. If the average Texas family making $3,800 a month, already owing $1,750 a month in bills, did what the Democrats did with the stimulus bill, they would take out a personal loan for $20,000, adding another $225 to their monthly loan payments. If we do the same with the 10-Year Budget Resolution that just passed the House, the reality of the financial burden placed on America is staggering. Our average Texas family would have just agreed to spend $64,000 next year, with their income still at $45,000, and borrow the difference. And they agreed to keep on spending over $60,000 a year and borrowing again each year for the next 10 years. The same family that started this year in trouble because of their $112,000 total debt would now be on track to owe a back-breaking $335,000 in ten years, with monthly debt payments over $3116, on an income of $3800. That equals bankruptcy. But just like our average family, we won’t feel it right off. That family would be able to immediately use that borrowed money to remodel their house, buy a new car, and re-pave the driveway over the next couple years – before the borrowed money started running out and the bills started coming due. As a nation, we’ll see the highway plans we wanted approved, our local schools remodeled, trillions in new federal healthcare benefits, and countless public projects undertaken. Then we’ll start seeing our children’s and our nation’s futures crumble into the dustbin of history. The budget resolution passed by the Democrats this month will double the national debt in five years and triple it in ten. We will be adding nearly a trillion dollars a year to that national debt for the next ten years. We have a very responsible alternative available. The alternate budget resolution would have balanced the federal budget by 2019, reduced the federal debt by $6 trillion below the Obama budget, and provided $1.2 trillion in tax relief to stimulate job growth. The Democrats shot it down. But hope does spring eternal. Fortunately, this budget resolution that just passed the House is only the start of this year’s votes on the budget. The budget will now be broken down into 13 smaller appropriations bills as it moves through the House, so we’ll additional chances at improving this monstrosity. If the final version looks like what just passed this week, we still have a chance to undo the damage with a new House in 2010. As bleak as things might seem at present, we have a lot easier fight from that that faced by Washington against the British Army. We don’t have to pick up a musket or march through the snow. All we have to do is keep calling, emailing, and faxing those in Washington who we elected to represent us, with a simple message: Start acting like the progeny of George Washington, instead of that of George III. And if you don’t, we will send someone else. * Sources: Congressional Budget Office (CBO) White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Treasury Department, U.S. Government Revenue.com, US Treasury Direct.com, USA Today, Mortgage Lenders Plus.

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