Dan Lungren - Newsletter

With the crises in Egypt, Japan, and Libya as well as the ongoing negotiations of funding for the remainder of the fiscal year, we must not forget that the single most pressing domestic issue facing our nation is unemployment.  After the financial crisis, Congress and the Administration went on a spending spree to “save” our economy and keep unemployment below eight percent.  Our deficit ballooned from $161 billion – or 1.2 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – in 2007 to $1.4 trillion – or 10 percent of GDP – two years later.  Meanwhile, we see how ineffective that spending spree has been with unemployment still in the double digits in the Sacramento area (over 12 percent).
That is why Budget Chairman Paul Ryan has introduced the “Path to Prosperity,” a fiscal blueprint that would – according to dynamic analysis by the Center for Data Analysis (CDA) –create one million new private sector jobs next year, bring the unemployment rate down to four percent by 2015, and yield $1.1 trillion in higher wages and an average of $1,000 per year in higher income for each family.  This budget would accomplish this job creation, wage growth, and prosperity for families while:
-cutting $6.2 trillion in government spending over 10 years,
-bringing government spending to below 20 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP),
-reducing the deficit by $4.4 trillion,
-eliminating $800 billion in tax increases,
-lowering the tax rate for individuals, families, and businesses,
-repairing our broken Medicaid system, and
-ensuring Medicare is available for current and future beneficiaries.
To see the difference between our Road to Prosperity and the budget propounded by the Obama Administration, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) provided data for the graph below.  The CBO has said that it cannot conceive of any way that the economy can continue past 2037 based on its current path.

In the shadow of this reality, Congress must resolve funding to keep the government running through September.  A lot of numbers have been discussed in the news –$33 billion, $40 billion, $61 billion, $100 billion – but the Senate has not actually passed any funding through September with any amount of reductions.  It has not acted in good faith to reduce government spending in light of the catastrophe that awaits us.  We must resolve the current funding dilemma before we can tackle the serious problems that got us to this point.  The sooner the Senate comes to the table with regard to funding through September, the sooner we can face the enormity of our debt problem and get to the business of job creation and wealth growth.
Sincerely,
Daniel E. Lungren
Member of Congress