In the back and forth of negotiations over raising the debt ceiling and enacting greater spending reductions, let’s not lose sight of what matters. Americans want – and urgently need – jobs.
In January 2009, 7.6 percent of Americans were unemployed. Although we were $9.2 trillion in federal debt, the White House insisted on spending $787 billion that it said would keep unemployment under 8 percent. Two and a half years later, 9.2 percent of Americans are unemployed and our public debt stands at $14.3 trillion, an exponential increase in just the past three years. Clearly, Washington cannot solve our economic problems by spending your money (and more of it) for you.
Now that we are nearing the limits of the current debt ceiling, the White House again insists that it needs more revenue – the Administration’s friendly term for tax increases – so that it can keep spending, spending, spending. And because the White House has failed to convince the American people that increasing taxes in the middle of a recession is a good idea, it is blaming the House for our commitment to avoid defaulting on our obligations while creating a healthy environment for job creation. I believe spending reductions must be more than the amount by which the debt ceiling is raised.
Raising taxes – whether on families like yours or businesses that we are all expecting to take risks and create jobs – will not serve America’s interests and give us a vibrant economy. A couple of weeks ago, I asked what you thought about increasing taxes as part of a deal to raise the debt ceiling. I was not surprised by the results, since they echo what you have told me in person when I am home in California. Please look over the results, which are published at the right.
I believe – along with most of you and my colleagues in the House – that government’s problem is due to spending, not revenue. Therefore, we need to cut unnecessary spending now, place caps on spending for the future and move toward a balanced budget constitutional amendment. As many of you identified in the survey to the right, tax reform, which may include elimination of some deductions and credits while lowering tax rates, could be a valid part of a deal to raise the debt ceiling. The best way to increase revenue is to increase the number of taxpayers by increasing the number of employed Americans. But increasing taxes on families, small businesses, and entrepreneurs is the wrong thing to do especially now, and so is demagoguing this issue.
We must enact spending reductions and meaningful reforms that will keep our nation committed to our families, secure for our employers, and faithful to our fiscal obligations.
Sincerely,
Daniel E. Lungren
Member of Congress
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