WashingtonExaminer.com
Sat 2012-03-10 19:46 One of the biggest myths propagated by Washingtons professional politicians is the idea that balancing the federal budget requires some sort of superhuman political and budgetary wisdom. Both political parties are afflicted with this defeatist thinking. President Obamas latest proposed federal spending blueprint is a depressing case in point.
The Obama proposal assumes $47 trillion more spending $1.9 trillion in new taxes and a national debt of $25.9 trillion -- at the end of the decade. Things look somewhat better over in the Republican-controlled House where the budget committees Road to Prosperity proposal cuts $4.4 trillion more from planned spending than the Obama budget but only puts the budget on the path to balance rather than eliminating annual deficits entirely.
Now along comes the Senate Tea Party Caucus with a budget proposal -- dubbed A Platform to Revitalize America -- that not only balances federal spending and revenues in five years but produces a $117 billion surplus in 2017. The plan is the handiwork of the three senators who make up the Senate Tea Party Caucus -- Jim DeMint R-S.C. Rand Paul R-Ky. and Mike Lee R-Utah. The whole point here is to show we can reasonably balance the budget within a five-year period. This idea that we have to look 30 years out to balance the budget is not only unnecessary but its improbable. We cannot continue to spend at our current rate for 10 more years much less 20 or 30 more years. This is an urgent matter said DeMint last week.
To understand just how urgent look no further than Greece where spending of the sort practiced by Obama for the last three years and proposed for the next 10 have produced riots in the streets. Democrats and Republicans alike have been kicking the can down the road on these issues for decades but the same chaos now afflicting Greece will appear here in a few years without the kind of spending reforms proposed by DeMint Paul and Lee. Their proposal involves dramatic but not draconian reforms.
For example they would convert Medicare into a premium support plan for seniors that mirrors the coverage enjoyed by members of Congress. That reform alone would save $1 trillion in a decade according to the three senators. The Social Security retirement age would be gradually increased and benefits would be indexed to individual incomes with a result that benefits for high-income earners would increase more slowly than those for low-income earners. Medicaid and the State Childrens Health Insurance Program food stamps and an assortment of federal child nutrition programs would be funded through block grants that give state governments much wider management authority.
The defense budget would also be cut but not as deeply as mandated by last years congressional spending deal. Foreign aid would be capped at $5 billion annually and the Departments of Energy Housing and Urban Development and Commerce would be shut down. The Transportation Security Administration would be privatized. Government efficiency and quality of services would be enhanced by these steps and members of Congress would likely see their public approval ratings head back to positive territory. Whats not to love about such a result?
