In January of this year, with the swearing in of the new 112th Congress, the House offered the United States the promise of a new model of governance: effective, efficient, responsive government. We made progress by passing a budget for the first time in four years so that the numbers would be plain as day and accountable to the public. We made progress by reversing the growth of government in returning spending levels to pre-2008 levels. We made progress by opening up the legislative process for debate, amendments, and transparency. We made progress by requiring all legislation to be made publically available for at least 72 hours before being voted on. We made progress by making concrete, public plans for how to deal with the debt ceiling and made good-faith efforts to negotiate with both the White House and the Senate.
So why isn’t Washington working the way that I had hoped it would and up to your expectations? In our government, it takes three to govern: the House, the Senate and the President. Unfortunately, while the House has been busy formulating and passing legislation that would address our debt and create jobs, while fulfilling our constitutional responsibility of setting spending authorizations (which, in the previous two Congresses have gone largely ignored), the Senate has done very little of anything. In more than 800 days, the Senate has not introduced, let alone passed, a budget. And until this week, the Senate had failed to offer a single plan to address the debt ceiling.
Meanwhile, the President has not propelled the nation forward either. When he offered a budget, it failed 97-0 in the Senate. Perhaps in light of his inability to get a single Senator - Republican or Democrat - to vote for his budget, his reluctance to offer a plan on the debt ceiling is more understandable. He has still failed to offer a plan on the debt ceiling that he would support. Instead, he has emphasized that, to meet his demands, a solution must be “balanced” – meaning it must increase the public’s tax burden. Unfortunately, the President’s “balanced” approach does not do enough to balance the nation’s checkbook. The government simply spends too much. Increasing taxes on the 75 percent of small businesses that file as individuals1- which are responsible for 65 percent of new jobs2 and account for 87.6 percent of businesses in the Sacramento region3- would not cover our $14 trillion debt. These taxes would only stifle job creation, reducing the number of taxpaying individuals, and at the most, could not even cover 10 months worth of debt - out of the next 10 years. I had hoped for something a little more productive in a “grand solution.”
We will keep making progress toward preventing the nation from defaulting on its commitments, toward balancing the budget, toward giving the private sector the best opportunities for recovery and growth, and ultimately toward making government work for you. It is going to be an arduous process to get Washington to abandon its “business as usual” attitude and will require compromise that takes all of us beyond our comfort zones. I am as ready as you are to take care of the nation’s important business.
Sincerely,
Daniel E. Lungren
Member of Congress
1 National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB)
2 United States Small Business Administration
3 Sacramento Metro Chamber of Commerce
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