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FrankRep
05-22-2011, 06:15 PM
Talking Points For June 2011 - Letters to the Editor


John F. McManus | John Birch Society (http://www.jbs.org/)
June 2011


Don't Allow Any Increase in the Debt Limit


There will be plenty of discussion in the coming weeks about raising the ceiling on the national debt. Those who insist that it must be boosted claim that the nation will "default" if more borrowing isn’t allowed. Congressman Ron Paul says that our nation effectively defaulted three times in the past and still managed to keep going: (1) after the War Between the States when the Greenback currency was declared worthless; (2) when gold-backing for currency was abolished by President Roosevelt in 1933; and (3) when all ties to precious metal were cancelled by President Johnson (silver) in 1968 and by President Nixon (gold) in 1971.

Default is the word you will hear again and again. What should be heard instead is “No more borrowing!” With an admitted national debt of more than $14 trillion and a real indebtedness (counting unfunded obligations) at or near $200 trillion, the borrowing has to stop. Refusing to raise the debt ceiling will be the first dose of sorely needed medicine.

We certainly can expect the already sizeable flurry of debt reduction proposals to dominate the press and the airwaves. Even the plan to cut $6.2 trillion in projected spending over the next 10 years offered by Representative Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) will not be enough to overcome planned deficits. Should cutting $1 trillion while amassing more than $1.5 trillion in new indebtedness be considered wisdom?

Any proposal that claims to deal with the nation’s monstrous debt should either call for abolishing numerous unconstitutional federal agencies or it should be rejected as inadequate — most likely because it is merely an exercise in political grandstanding. Here are some suggested targets for cancellation.


1. Department of Education.


Each year, educational performance goes down and the cost of federal involvement goes up. The current federal budget includes $68.6 billion for education and the education bureaucracy employs 4,200.

2. Department of Energy.


Begun when our nation was importing 30 percent of energy needs, we now import close to 70 percent. Working in tandem with environmental extremists at the EPA and other unconstitutional federal agencies, this federal department spends $23 billion annually and, including contractors, employs close to 100,000.

3. Department of Housing and Urban Development.


Largely responsible for the housing bubble that burst and initiated the current recession, HUD spends $40 billion per year and employs 9,000 bureaucrats. Putting people in homes they can’t afford is not only stupid, it’s cruel.

4. Food Stamps.


With several new categories of recipients (now including college students), the food stamp program has 42,900,000 “clients” and spends $73 billion. One in seven Americans receives this form of welfare.

5. Earmarks.


All projects funded by the process known as earmarking should be funded at the local, not the federal, level. In 2010, the cost for all earmarks added up to $15 billion, a relatively small amount when measured against so many other costly expenditures. But it should be cancelled along with a host of other unconstitutional programs.

6. Foreign Aid.


A nation so heavily in debt as is the United States should hardly be giving away money. Trying to determine how much is dispensed is extremely difficult because there are so many kinds of foreign aid. Tens of billions are spent in these unconstitutional programs each year.

Bringing the troops home from unconstitutional wars and counterproductive deployments would cut the $700 billion Defense budget dramatically. Refusing to add to the national debt and paying off some of it would cut into the $400 billion spent annually for interest. Repealing ObamaCare and step-by-step removing the federal government from the field of medicine where it has no constitutional authorization would save billions. And making the Social Security program voluntary (older people would stay, younger people would flee) would see it disappear in a generation.

This is the kind of thinking needed to address America’s horrendous indebtedness. How bad is it? The United States of America is the most heavily indebted nation in the history of mankind. Continuing down the path we are on will lead to termination of the American dream and insertion of our nation as a mere province in a tyrannical New World Order.

Not increasing the national debt followed by abolishing a host of federal boondoggles would begin to reverse this process. Please tell your Congressman and Senators that you want nothing less than real reductions.