America Needs More Jobs, Not More Debt

by Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)

Last week, as the national debt topped $12 trillion for the first time in U.S. history, one influential policymaker said, “I think it is important, though, to recognize if we keep on adding to the debt … that at some point, people could lose confidence in the U.S. economy in a way that could actually lead to a double-dip recession.”

WaPo_deficit_chart_March_21st

This analysis was delivered by President Barack Obama, on whose watch “red ink as far as the eye can see” has become the status quo.

While mostly accurate, President Obama’s comments actually miss the fact that our rapidly decaying fiscal situation has already undermined confidence in the U.S. economy.  Washington Democrats saw to that with a trillion-dollar ‘stimulus’ that was supposed to be about creating jobs, but has instead produced countless examples of wasteful government spending while more than three million more Americans have lost their jobs.

It’s no wonder, then, that the Chinese government, which controls about one out of every four foreign dollars invested in our debt, has been asking detailed questions about the long-term fiscal impact of a government takeover of health care.

The Chinese have every right to be concerned.  The head of the Concord Coalition, an independent fiscal watchdog, recently described the Senate’s 2,074-page government takeover of health care as “basically, a big entitlement expansion, plus tax increases.”

Much more is at stake here than the short-term status of our economy. The federal government is currently operating on a budget that doubles the national debt in the next five years and triples it in the next 10.

By the time the next decade is out, interest payments to sustain the national debt will exceed $700 billion. That is more than what our nation will spend this year on education, energy, homeland security and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – combined.

Out-of-control spending has been a problem for years in Washington, but instead of hitting the brakes on spending as they promised they would, President Obama and Washington Democrats have stepped on the accelerator.  Now, instead of working with Republicans to impose real fiscal discipline, Washington Democrats believe the answer is more of the same unsustainable spending and borrowing. Our kids and grandkids should not have to foot the bill because out-of-touch Washington Democrats will not make the same tough choices required of every family struggling to make ends meet.

Our government is out of money and Washington Democrats are out of ideas. At every turn this year, Republicans have offered better, fiscally-responsible solutions to tackle the immediate challenges facing the American people, including an economic recovery plan that would have created twice the jobs at half the cost, a budget that would impose strict caps to limit federal spending on an annual basis, and the only health care bill that would cut the deficit and consistently reduce federal spending on health care over the next two decades.

Families are asking ‘where are the jobs?’ but all they are getting from out-of-touch Washington Democrats is more spending and more debt piled on our kids and grandkids. The American people deserve a government that lives within its means and fully commits itself to creating good-paying jobs, and only Republicans have proposed solutions to give them exactly what they want.  Now more than ever, America needs more jobs, not more debt.


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Posted Nov 25th 2009 at 7:50 am in Economics, Featured Story, News, Politics | 84 Comments