She told me we had to do something about all the spending, to make sure people remember that every dollar the federal government spends goes squarely on the backs of hard-working American taxpayers.
I met this young family at a recent tour stop, as part of Americans for Prosperity’s “Obama’s Failing Agenda” tour. With stops already in Florida, North Carolina, Virginia and Colorado, I’ve once again seen firsthand how President Obama’s economic policies are hurting Americans from every walk of life. Across the country, we struggle with the lack of jobs, are worried about the national debt and want government to stop spending irresponsibly.
Over the last four years our national debt has risen nearly $6 trillion, and just last week the debt topped an astounding $16 trillion. To put that in perspective, $16 trillion is enough money to fund the US military, along with the military of every NATO country combined… for the next sixteen years! Government spending is projected to hit $3.8 trillion this year alone. Even after every tax dollar paid by Americans has been counted, the government will still overspend by another $1.13 trillion.
In your household, as with government, spending more than what you bring in means you must borrow the money and live on credit. That young mother of four has a budget and told me about the tough decisions her family must make. Her family doesn’t need to eat out and they have movie nights at home. Her family is responsible every day to make sure they can afford to pay the mortgage, buy food that costs more every month, and stay out of debt as much as possible. Even this little family understands the importance of budgeting better than President Obama.
Sadly unlike nearly every family and individual in America, our federal government hasn’t passed a budget in over three years. Continuing resolutions, which is a bill to continue spending at the same level as the year before, are now the way the federal government spends money. Instead of planning and preparing for the fiscal problems of the future our leaders just accept the excessive spending levels of the past. The budget is essentially on autopilot while our economy continues to lag and the debt piles up.
While President Obama ignores the basics of responsible spending, his policies are also making life more expensive for Americans. Standing in a mini-mall parking lot in Gastonia, NC, I chatted with Eddie, who owns a local sub shop. He told me that his profit margins are at the breaking point because of ever higher gas prices and rising utility bills. Obama's ideological assault on fossil fuels has slowed coal and oil drilling, while diverting billions in federal loans to green energy scams.
In the rare moments President Obama acknowledges our troubling debt, his only proposed solution is to raise taxes on financially successful Americans. I think we know by now, a tax rate of 100% wouldn’t be high enough to pay for the excesses of the federal government.
This past Monday, the same day this young mother pulled me aside, was the first day our government began to run solely on credit. So, for the remaining 108 days of the year, every single dollar the federal government spends, roughly $10.5 billion per day, goes on our collective credit card called the national debt. You and I, our children and their children are of course responsible for paying that debt.
Every single second of the day our government spends over $12,000. So in the time it takes you to read this article, roughly five minutes, our government has spent $3.6 million. It take four seconds for the government to spend what the average American earns in an entire year.
If you’ve ever been in over your head financially, you know that sick nauseous feeling in your stomach as you ask yourself, “How am I ever getting out of this?” As a nation, we should all be feeling that way, and asking ourselves the same question. The only answer is for our elected officials to turn away from their big-government excesses, and stop spending money they don’t have.
President Obama could learn an important lesson from that young mother in Colorado Springs.