Shuster Signs Letter to Pelosi: Fund Troops, not Profligate Spending

Congressman Bill Shuster joined 173 of his House Republican colleagues in singing a letter to Speaker Pelosi urging her to produce a clean DOD Appropriations Conference Report that does not include miscellaneous spending and the largest debt increase in American history:

“The Democrats under the leadership of Speaker Pelosi are preparing to bring a DOD spending bill to the floor of the House in the form of a Christmas tree laden with gifts to special interests and Democrat priorities,” Shuster said.

“Giving Speaker Pelosi and her leaders in Congress a blank check to spend more by increasing our debt ceiling by $1.8 trillion is irresponsible and to tie it to legislation to fund our soldiers fighting in Afghanistan is reprehensible,” Shuster continued. “We need to pass a clean defense spending bill without delay.”

The House is expected to take up the DOD Appropriations Conference Report in the next few days. The text of the letter bearing Shuster’s signature is attached below and a copy can be found online here.

The Honorable Nancy Pelosi

Speaker of the House

U.S. Capitol

Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Madam Speaker,

We write today to express our strong opposition to reports that the Democrat Majority is considering attaching unrelated and extremely controversial proposals, such as an increase in the public debt limit, to the Fiscal Year 2010 Defense Appropriations bill. We object to maneuvers to use our troops as leverage to enact proposals that the Majority either cannot pass on their own or for which they wish to avoid directly voting on and we will oppose a Defense Appropriations package that includes such provisions.

Unfortunately, there seems to be pattern developing this year of using legislation that supports our men and women in uniform to pass other contentious proposals that are extraneous to our troops. We should supply those who risk their lives for our country with the resources they need without conditions and without using them to accomplish other legislative goals. House Republicans stand ready to help the Majority enact a defense bill that meets the needs of our troops, but we will not assist your effort to use the troops to enact an increase in our national debt limit so as to finance the irresponsible spending policies of your party.

Sincerely,

(174 House Republicans)

Leader Boehner has more over at his own GOP Leader Blog

Obama Misery Index

Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee have put together a graph showing how public debt and unemployment have grown over the past 10 months - calling it the "Obama misery index."

Debt and Deficits by the Numbers

Reposted from the House GOP Conference:

Almost one-year after Barack Obama was elected President and three years since Democrats took majorities in Congress, the Department of Treasury reports that under the Democrats’ control, 2009 was the worst fiscal year in the nation’s entire history. Democrats have abandoned their lofty promises to voters and continued their pattern of reckless spending and government expansion. The results have been historically disastrous.

INCREASED DEFICIT

$1.417 Trillion: The FY 2009 federal deficit, the highest amount ever and three times last year’s record-setting deficit of $458 billion.

10%: The 2009 deficit as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the highest since 1945, the last year of World War II. Since 1946, the deficit as a percentage of GDP had never topped 6 percent.

$9.050 Trillion: The combined amount of deficits the White House predicts over the next ten years under the President’s budget.

$739 Billion: The smallest annual deficit over the next ten years under the President’s budget.

INCREASED DEBT

$11.952 Trillion: The current national debt, including Treasury securities held by the government.

$38,840: The amount of the national debt owed by each man, woman, and child in the U.S.

$104,094: The share of the national debt owed by every household in the U.S.

$3.282 Trillion: The amount the national debt has increased since Democrats took control of Congress on January 4, 2007.

$1.325 Trillion: The amount the national debt has increased since President Obama was inaugurated just nine months ago, on January 20, 2009.

$199 Billion: The amount of money spent by the government to pay the interest on its debts in 2009.

$12.104 Trillion: The current limit on national debt, which was raised from $11.315 trillion for the “stimulus” bill and which Democrats now say must be raised yet again soon.

$24.498 Trillion: The total national debt in 2019 under the President’s budget, according to White House estimates.

Republicans speak out on Debt Day

House Republican Leader John Boehner has a post up on his blog showing how House Republicans marked Debt Day across the country. Congressman Shuster's op-ed that ran last week is front and center. Check it out here.

Posted by: Press Secretary

AP Fact Check on President Obama's deficit

Fact Check: Obama disowns deficit he helped shape

Debt Day is no reason to celebrate

The following op-ed by Congressman Shuster in Debt Day is currently working its way through the 9th district's newspapers. Keep an eye out for it in your local editorial page:

Debt Day is no Reason to Celebrate

Congressman Bill Shuster

This past Sunday was Debt Day.

Debt Day marks the day when the government starts paying for federal spending by borrowing money rather than using revenue generated by your tax dollars. This means that all of the money spent in Washington from this day forward will either be borrowed from other countries like China, or borrowed from your children and grandchildren.

Families and small businesses in the 9^th district and across the country are cutting back on expenses and reshuffling their priorities in an uncertain market. As retirement accounts dwindle and economic uncertainty continues, many across our nation are looking to the government for steady leadership during this difficult time.

Unfortunately, instead of supplying real solutions to the problems we face, President Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress have responded to the call with unprecedented levels of debt, spending, and government interference in our economy. The stimulus package I opposed in February increased the debt by $1 trillion, even though the Republican alternative would have provided twice as many jobs at half the cost.

Most recently, the President proposed a budget that will dramatically increase the amount of debt in America. According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, the President’s budget will produce $9.3 trillion in deficits over the next ten years. The national debt will double in eight years, and by 2012, the American people will be paying $1 billion per day in net interest. Even some of my Democrat colleagues have declared that the policies are unsustainable.

Sadly, the total debt incurred by the nation as a result of Congress and the Administration will cripple America’s future. Debt per capita is currently about $35,000 and in just eight years it will be $70,000. Our children and grandchildren will be forced to bear an unprecedented burden as a result of the Democrats’ policies. Doubling the debt is no solution to our economic challenges.

The American people know we can’t borrow and spend our way back to prosperity. President Obama announced last week that he is calling on his Cabinet to cut $100 million from his $3.5 trillion budget. That is a drop in the bucket. $100 million is equivalent to a paltry .003 percent of the President’s total budget. Taxpayers deserve better.

The path to our economic recovery starts with real fiscal responsibility in Washington. I, along with my House Republican colleagues believe that the federal government should follow the example set by our nation’s families – tighten the budget, eliminate wasteful spending and give Americans more control over their finances by getting government off of their backs. The future of America depends on it.

Debt Day is April 26th

From GOP Conference:

Debt Day is an illustration of the size of government spending relative to the revenue the government receives and is calculated by taking the ratio of the federal revenues to the federal outlays projected by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and applying it to the 365 days of the fiscal year. For 2009, Debt Day currently falls on April 26th.

Debt Day illustrates the day during the federal fiscal year on which government spending exceeds revenue for that year. The earlier in the year Debt Day falls on the calendar, the more deficit spending the government will rack up – adding even more debt to be paid by our children and grandchildren.

Just as families have to budget income (from a job or Social Security, for example) against expenses (like rent or mortgage payments, food and health care), if expenses exceed income debt will be incurred. It works in a similar way for the government. Except instead of income from a job, the government gets most of its revenue from taxes. And instead of spending for housing, food and other necessities, the government spends its money on a wide variety of functions and services.

This year the government is on pace to shatter all previous debt level records; moving Debt Day from August 5 last year to April 26 this year. This is in large part due to the Democrat trillion-dollar “stimulus” spending bill, the more than $400 billion“omnibus” spending bill, and another $350 billion in bailout funds Democrats have green-lighted since the beginning of the year. By contrast, in every fiscal year post-9/11 Debt Day has fallen at least three months after when Debt Day will fall this year. The charts below show when Debt Day has fallen each fiscal year beginning in FY1998 and how many days the federal government survived on credit during the year.

Posted by: Press Secretary