Stop the Spending Now

Alison Acosta Fraser / March 04, 2010

Federal spending is out of control. Even President Obama knows it.  To really stop the madness, Reps. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), Mike Pence (R-IN), and John Campbell (R-CA) have proposed a simple solution – a constitutional amendment capping federal spending at 20 percent of the economy. Their proposal puts the debate squarely where it should be: exploding federal spending and the size of government.  The authors of the amendment write that “Fiscal reform must begin and end with significant spending restraint.  If not – if spending continues unchecked – this generation will prove to be the first to mortgage the future of its children and grandchildren instead of leaving a better and more prosperous future”.  So true.  Congress has proved itself incapable of fixing the massive fiscal mess they created.  Now it must fix the legislative process and begin to propose real spending reforms.

Under the excesses that occurred under President Bush, the automatic explosion of entitlement spending on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security seemed a distant economic threat. But the recent spending binge has changed the game so that, when coupled with the remainder of President Obama’s stunning agenda, Washington is today building a bridge of debt to our  long-term entitlement meltdown.  This spending-driven debt is a symptom of the system allowing budget policy to go desperately wrong. (more…)