The White House's wish almost came true last week. It was hoping most of us and even the mainstream media would miss the release of the Congressional Budget Office's preliminary report on the 2010 federal fiscal year. And most did.
The Wall Street Journal, however, exposed why the White House was being so secretive about its results: The CBO concluded that federal government spending has skyrocketed 21.4 percent in just the past two years since President Barack Obama took office!
The White House's actions remind me of President Ronald Reagan's words: "We could say they spend money like drunken sailors, but that would be unfair to drunken sailors. It would be unfair because the sailors are spending their own money."
It's no new revelation that Washington has lost its way from our Founders' vision and fiscal frugality. But in the past two years, it has become a financial runaway train. And it is only we the people who can save it from completely derailing our country and all of us on board.
Last week, I discussed the first five steps to regain control of Washington's insane spending and rebuild America's economy. Though I encourage readers who didn't read it to do so to get the details, I will summarize the first five points before I move on to the last three.
First, Washington should immediately stop any thought, form or legislation that would lead to more federal borrowing or bailouts — no exceptions.
Second, Washington should downsize the federal government by enacting tough spending caps and making across-the-board mandatory 10 percent cuts — no exceptions.
Third, Washington should immediately revise the 2011 federal budget to align with those priority reductions and eliminate absolutely all earmarks — no exceptions.
Fourth, Washington should engage in only non-debt-building actions and legislation that would immediately encourage Main Street and augment entrepreneurial incentives, including a commitment to never increase taxes for anyone for any reason but cut more taxes, which would provide immediate relief and increase revenues for everyone.
Fifth, Washington should discuss ways to encourage and equip interstate commerce and more collaboration among neighboring states, counties and communities — to brainstorm their own solutions to increase revenue and productivity in their own regions.
Sixth, we the people should hold Washington representatives accountable to our Founders' fiscal prudence and federal frugalities, both by our vote and their passing and living under a constitutional amendment for a balanced federal budget, which would require them to live within their means. A balanced budget amendment also would cut up big daddy's credit card in Washington with its unlimited credit limit.
Seventh, because we the people need to ensure our future economic stability and growth, we should seek to elect (or re-elect) only fiscally sound representatives who show proof of fiscal discipline, demonstrate a pay-as-you-go lifestyle and leadership, refuse under all circumstances to increase our national deficit and debts, disdain special interests, commit to live under a constitutional amendment for a balanced budget, understand how to grow jobs and the economy, and are willing to make the most difficult economic decisions.
We need to elect only leaders who would slash government spending and refuse to pay for programs that we cannot afford. We all must fight (once and for all) to elect fiscally prudent politicians like our Founders, those like Thomas Jefferson, who brought down the national deficit even though he made the Louisiana Purchase and engaged the U.S. in a war with Tripoli.
Jefferson's warning about government debt and taxes is more apropos now than ever before: "To preserve (the) independence (of the people), we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debts as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and our creeds, as the people of England are, our people, like them, must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give the earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses, and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they now do, on oatmeal and potatoes, have no time to think, no means of calling the mismanagers to account, but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers."
This brings me to my eighth critical step in reining in and controlling the federal government's spending and rebuilding America's economy. We must return to a pay-as-you-go government and nation. It's our last resort for an out-of-control economy and government. As Jefferson once said, "the maxim of buying nothing but what we had money in our pockets to pay for (is) a maxim which, of all others, lays the broadest foundation for happiness."
Friends, it's not too late, but the window is closing fast. We likely have one more chance to drop our partisan divides and elect only those who would be strict constitutionalists and preservers of our Founders' vision, principles and fiscal prudence, before the American economy and government collapse.
It is the last hour before the election, and we patriots need to reawaken our friends and neighbors to vote, as I called on Americans to do in my recent comical production "Trigger The Vote."
For a voter guide detailing where candidates in your state stand on issues and the pros and cons of key propositions, go to http://www.ChristianVoterGuide.com.
Most of all, we patriots need to fight with all our might to ensure the election on Nov. 2 of those across this land who firmly believe, as Reagan did, that "government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem."
(I also encourage everyone to check out the trailers to two new patriotic films playing near you, "I Want Your Money" and "Battle for America.")
To find out more about Chuck Norris and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
