Cut, Cap, Balance

The worldwide debt crisis has been much in the news in recent months, and the debate about raising the United States debt ceiling has been loud, raucous, and not settled yet. It is no secret that our huge government debt was caused by our elected officials in Washington, D.C. - both Republicans and Democrats - who deliberately made and passed bills that put our nation's fiscal health in danger. Our nation now owes at least $14.3 trillion. Our elected leaders are borrowing about forty cents of every dollar they spend. We cannot continue on the path that we are currently traveling.

I have been watching the issues closely and reading as much about it as I possibly could, but I still do not understand much about our problems. I have noticed that liberals are adamant about the need to raise the debt ceiling so that we can even more money and go even further in debt while conservatives are opposed to raising the debt ceiling without cutting the deficit and capping future spending. A coalition made up of conservatives and libertarians put forth a plan to stop this out of control spending. Their stated goal is to keep Congress from raising the debt ceiling unless they also cut, cap, and balance federal spending. The U.S. House of Representatives passed the "cut, cap, and balance" deficit reduction plan on Tuesday, July 19, 2011, by a bipartisan vote of 234-190 (229 Republicans and 5 Democrats voted for it). The U.S. Senate voted on Friday, July 22, 2011, to "table" or kill the House Republican proposal by a vote of 51-46 along party lines. Senate Majority Leader Harry proclaimed Cut, Cap, and Balance to be dead.

What is Cut, Cap, and Balance? Why are liberals so opposed to it? H.R. 2560, The Cut, Cap, and Balance Act, is basically just what it says. Cut the deficit immediately. The deficit last year alone was $1.6 trillion and must be halved for this year. Cap the spending. The historical rate of federal spending - before the Obama Administration - was 18% of GDP or less. In order to protect our nation from out of control politicians, we must put a cap on spending at the historical level. Balance the budget. We must pass a Balance Budget Amendment because we cannot trust politicians from either party. We know from the actions of politicians in the past - Republicans during the Bush Administration and Democrats in the Obama Administration - that we cannot trust them to spend our money wisely. Simply stated, Cut, Cap, and Balance is an effort to restrict and control politicians while saving and strengthening our freedoms. If it were made law, Americans would again be free to prosper and thrive.

Why are liberals so opposed to cutting our deficit, capping our spending, and balancing our budget when the majority of Americans are supportive of doing so? I do not know why. I cannot understand their unwillingness to do so. It appears that liberal/progressive Democrats are being irresponsible about our debt: the Senate has not passed a budget for over 800 days, and neither President Obama nor the Senate has come up with a plan to solve our fiscal problems.

President Obama called for a "balanced" plan, and stated that he wanted a "shared sacrifice." Yet, when the House put forth such a plan, he said that he would veto Cut, Cap and Balance if it were passed by the Senate.

Fox News.com reported the following statement from Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas): "The Democrat-led Senate's failure to both produce a budget and pass the Cut, Cap, and Balance Act of 2011 underscores the Democrats' irresponsible commitment to the status quo. While the President and Senator Reid refuse to produce a plan to deal with our debt crisis, Republicans will keep working to meet the nation's fiscal challenges."

John Boehner (R-Ohio), Speaker of the House, was reported as saying, "Senate Democrats have defied the will of the American people who overwhelmingly support real spending cuts, caps on future spending, and a balanced budget to create a better environment for private-sector job growth.
"Republicans are standing with the American people and, as I've said before, will not pass a bill that fails to cut spending by more than it increases the debt limit, restrain future spending, or that raises taxes on families and job creators."

It appears to me that liberal/progressive Democrats are using smoke and mirrors in order to withstand the control of Cut, Cap, and Balance. Republicans who are not conservatives (RINOs) are sabotaging efforts to stabilize our fiscal situation. The situation has to be faced as soon as possible. The longer we allow the President and Congress to freely throw our money around, the worse the situation will become. If we don't get the borrowing and spending under control now, we will lose our ability to borrow anything or at least have a worse credit rating to deal with.