America has a growth deficit. As the latest job report shows
unemployment reached 9.2% — the highest rate of 2011 — investors
and employers continue to react negatively to this bad news.
During the three years of the Obama administration, in
this dismal economy millions of Americans have been forced to take
jobs that they are overqualified for or they have simply given up
looking for work entirely. If you include those workers, the real
unemployment rate is higher than 16.2% by conservative
estimates.
These numbers are far worse depending on geography, with
the most glaring examples of misguided economic policies being in
poor urban communities.
Capital always follows the path of least resistance and
greatest opportunity. But not only has President Obama’s
continuation of endless deficit spending not resulted in so-called
Keynesian “pump priming” and economic growth, it has discouraged
private investment as money continues to flow into safe havens like
Treasuries.
As the debt-ceiling debate rages on and some in the Senate
Republican leadership seem ready to negotiate with big-government
Democrats, the proverbial 4.2 trillion dollar gorilla in the room
continues to grow while trampling over our economy and the
formation of small businesses.
To be clear, there are two distinct paths:
We can go the route that President Obama favors, which
includes an ever-increasing debt ceiling that will continue to
crush economic activity.
Or, we can force government to “eat their peas” and use
the force of law to handcuff legislators to policies that spur
economic growth and job creation.
And the time to choose a path is today, before August 2,
when the Federal government will officially run out of money to pay
outstanding obligations.
According to Michael Tanner of CATO, the Treasury
Department will collect roughly $203 billion in taxes during
August, but have liabilities totaling more than $307 billion. You
certainly could not run your family budget with this type of
recklessness. And as America runs at lightning speed toward a
Greek-like financial catastrophe, as our debt is on the verge of
consuming our nation’s entire output.
Throughout American history, we have never failed to
increase the debt ceiling. And as irresponsible politicians grow
government for their own political gain, they have left us with a
financial cancer that is metastasizing rapidly.
Therefore, conservatives must act boldly and proactively.
Not only must we sit at the bargaining table and demand cuts, but
there must be cuts in all levels of government which amount to an
immediate reduction in the deficit. Anything less is
unacceptable.
The second step is to use tough statuary caps that will
tie the hands of future politicians from spending beyond the
historical, pre-Bush average of 18% of the Gross Domestic Product.
Politicians in both parties have proven themselves untrustworthy to
reduce spending, so breaking that limitation would mandate
simultaneous spending reductions.
And finally, we must have Congress approve the Hatch-Lee
Balanced Budget Amendment, and send it to the states
for ratification. Not only would it mirror most states which have
their own requirements for expenditures equalling revenue, but it
additionally requires a two-thirds supermajority to approve tax
increases. And once the amendment is official, it would be quite
impossible in the modern era to ever repeal it.
These proposals would have been impossible in any previous
congress, including the 1994 Gingrich Revolution. But things have
changed now that every man, woman, and child in the United States
owes $46,000, and with our debt on a path to double within 10
years.
Thanks to Tea Party activists providing the necessary
backlash to an ever-expanding federal government, the proposals put
forth in the Cut, Cap, and Balance pledge are not only entirely
possible, a majority of Americans understand they are necessary to
put America on a path to new jobs and prosperity.
The Hon. Blackwell is the best-selling author
of
Resurgent: How Constitutional Conservatism Can Save
America.
