Wilson County Tea Party Reports – YOU DECIDE!

FROM THE AUGUST ISSUE OF THE WCTP NEWSLETTER:

The American people were the big losers in the recent debt ceiling scam perpetrated by the Washington elitists who truly believe that the citizens of this country are simpletons unable to absorb pertinent facts and reach a logical conclusion. Frankly, their ‘compromise’ deal fixed NOTHING and WE KNOW IT! The almost-immediate S&P credit downgrade proved us right!

The ‘right’ touted the debt compromise as the ‘best they could do’ since they only control the U.S. House while the left controls the Senate, the Presidency and the forth wing of liberal government, the media. The left, on the other hand, spewed a headache-inducing rant calling for increased taxes coupled with the status quo in Social Security and Medicare spending along with their promise to punish the evil rich and their evil corporations.

Despite the right’s promise that they achieved ‘cuts that equal more than the debt ceiling increase’, they actually got nothing. Why? Because the 900-pound gorilla remains in the room and it continues to suffocate us.

What is the gorilla?

It is baseline budgeting and, until it is eliminated and replaced with zero baseline budgeting we will continue to dig our economic grave.

Baseline budgeting was born in the Congressional Budget Act of 1974. That legislation required the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to prepare projections of federal spending for the upcoming fiscal year based on a continuation of the existing level of governmental services. It also required the newly established Congressional Budget Office to prepare five-year projections of budget authority, outlays, revenues, and the surplus or deficit.

Essentially, baseline budgeting is a budget projection of current services. The only change that has been made to this economic farce in the last two+ decades is that the projections are now made for 10 years rather than the original 5 years into the future.

Baseline budgeting assumes that every government agency needs to increase their budget 3-10% each year regardless of the amount of money actually needed by that agency the previous year. These spending increases are AUTOMATIC! An increase in spending is expected while there is nothing to reward fiscal responsibility. The process encourages waste and abuse by each government agency. It also allows our federal officials to spew propaganda to the American people by falsely claiming that budgets are being ‘cut’ when, in reality, they are simply not being raised or being raised by a smaller amount than originally projected.

In a recent monologue, radio personality Rush Limbaugh described baseline budgeting like this (full transcript):

Baseline budgeting is based on the presumption that every item in the budget will automatically increase between three and 10% depending on what the item is, every year, regardless what happened in the previous year. This is why, for example, at the end of the year the agriculture department starts advertising for food stamp applicants because they want their budget to increase. So they don’t look at the reality, and say, “You know what, we don’t need this much money in this department. We have more money than we need. We don’t have as many people needing food stamps as we have food stamps.” They don’t look at it and then cut back and tell the government, “You know what, you can cut us here.” They will go out and give away food stamps in order to make sure they get that three to 10% increase. But that three to 10% increase every year becomes the starting point for every budget negotiation.

So, for example, when Obama passes the stimulus bill, another trillion dollars effectively is added to the baseline. No consideration is given to whether or not the money was spent wisely, wasted effectively or whatever. It was just spent. And because it was spent, there must be an increase in that line item every year. The way this manifests itself in Washington, the best way I have ever found to illustrate this is to put yourself in the situation where you’re going to go buy a new car. You’ve looked at your budget, and you have decided that you can afford the monthly payment on a $40,000 car. So you go to the showrooms or you go to the Internet or you go wherever you look to buy a car, and you find a car you really love for $70,000 that the dealer tells you is on sale, that you can get it for 60.

So you and the family discuss it, and if you’re like Washington, what you do is you tell yourself, “You know what? Let’s get that $70,000 car that only costs 60, and we will save ourselves $10,000.” But you haven’t. You have spent $20,000 more than you originally allocated. You originally said you’re gonna buy a $40,000 car, then you find one you really like for 70, on sale for 60, you plop down the 60, which is 20 more than you wanted to spend, and tell yourself you saved ten. That’s how it works. That’s baseline budgeting. That is how a cut or a saving is actually an increase.

Therefore, the ‘tax increases’ constantly touted by the Democrats as the solution to our debt crisis would only add to the baseline budget in the year following their implementation – essentially increasing our debt in the long term. Remember, we do NOT have a revenue problem!

Baseline budgeting is legalized fraud and the taxpayers are the unsuspecting victims. For instance, a 3 percent increase in the budget of a program that was originally expecting an increase of 8 percent is still a budget increase – NOT A BUDGET CUT. However, under baseline budgeting, any increase less than the increase projected by the OMB is considered be a cut. Former CEO of Chrysler, Lee Iacocca, once stated that if the business world used baseline budgeting the way Congress does “they’d throw us in jail.”

A particularly favorite ploy of the left is the attempt to ‘get a rise’ from the uninformed public by issuing blatantly false statements indicating that the right is cutting funding for favorite programs when, in reality, the right has only suggested a cut in the growth rate of spending for these programs or agencies. “Draconian cut” is a favorite rhetorical rant and, unfortunately, it resonates with the ignorant or apathetic voting public.

Rush’s 7/27/11 monologue also describes the preposterous way our government budgetary agency would look at a freeze in government spending:

“One final thought to illustrate the absurdity of our baseline, and I’ll leave you alone. If Speaker Boehner –” now, listen to me very carefully, folks “– if Speaker Boehner were to propose that we simply freeze all government spending immediately, including mandatory and discretionary, meaning including the entitlements, if we just freeze everything and spend no more this year than we spent last year, the Congressional Budget Office would score that as a nine and a half trillion-dollar cut.”

In fact, the OMB has projected that the cumulative total of our automatic baseline increases for the next ten years is approximately $9.5 TRILLION. Therefore, if we cut $2.1 to 2.4 TRILLION from our debt over the next 10 years (the amount promised by the recent debt ‘compromise’), our debt will still increase by about $7.1 TRILLION over 10 years! The ‘compromise’ passed by our Congress and signed by the President last week didn’t do one thing to stop our massive spending because baseline budgeting still exists and there is nothing in this legislation to stop the automatic increases given to each agency year after year. As Rush also points out, the baseline budget for 2021 is already $5.7 TRILLION. Necessary or otherwise, it’s a done deal under our current budget system. The baseline budget for 2013 is $2 TRILLION more than 2012 budget even though not one of your representatives in Washington got together to discuss the merits of a single agency receiving the increase in spending – not one meeting to decide if a program was effective or if your money was being spent wisely. (You might want to keep in mind that these automatic increases in agency budgets are taking place while our government is telling seniors that there is no inflation and, therefore, there is no need to increase the amount of Social Security benefits they receive. So, why then, do agency budgets need to increase so dramatically?)

What can we do about this deceitful process?

We need to eliminate baseline budgeting IMMEDIATELY by passing legislation that will stop the automatic increase in federal spending each year. At least one such bill (HR920 Zero Baseline Budget Act of 2011) was introduced in the U.S. House in March of this year and currently has 34 co-sponsors. Unfortunately, neither Wilson County Representative (Diane Black or Jim Cooper) has signed on as co-sponsor. There may, however, be other such bills that we are unaware of which address the same issue. Any representative serious about achieving true fiscal reform, however, must support legislation of this type because, without it, we are on a fast train to financial ruin.

It is time to end the farce known as baseline budgeting. The budget of each federal program/agency should start at ZERO each year! Each agency/program should have to justify their current expenditures and thoroughly document their need for an increase. As long as we are federal debt, increases should be non-existent or, at least, very minimal. Instead, each agency should be cutting their budget year after year until fiscal responsibility is brought back to this government. A cut should be called a cut and a spending increase should be called a spending increase. The deliberate deceit must stop and it must stop now.

We urge you to contact the offices of Reps Diane Black and Jim Cooper as well as the offices of our two TN Senators, Alexander and Corker, to insist (politely, of course) that they support and pass a zero-baseline budget bill. We need to ensure that this will be an issue in the 2012 election so please pass on this information to your friends and family.

Whether you realize it or not, Congress put the federal government on fiscal auto-pilot in 1974. Since that time, we have all been foolish enough to believe that we were sending representatives to Washington to make a difference, to change things for the better. Unfortunately, we’ve been scammed because each representative that has gone to Washington since that time has issued well-crafted falsehoods in the form of press releases leading us to believe that they were getting tough on waste, fraud and abuse. They assured us that they were reigning-in out-of-control government. In reality, however, each of them knew – upon arriving in D.C. – that the system was profoundly broken yet almost none of them had the courage to stand up before the American people and tell the truth. Instead, they lined up behind the others who had come to Washington before them and did nothing to truly address the problems plaguing our government for fear of losing their high profile job. Most of our reps in Washington chose the path of least resistance and pretended to represent the unsuspecting citizens of this country. For this, we will ALL pay a heavy price.

Friends and Neighbors,

The Capitol/White House plan does stop a tax hike. It does force congress to promise future spending cuts and it does force a future vote on both house and senate on a Balanced Budget Amendment. But, it does little to reduce size and scope of government and fails to address the deficit in any significant way. The leftists get more money to cripple the economy.

This is not acceptable. It offers no real solutions. Our unsustainable debt, incurred by uncontrollable spending of borrowed money to further the Socialist strategy aimed at destruction of free market capitalistic America must be significantly reduced now or our nation’s triple A credit rating will be lowered. The cuts being proposed by the Capital Hill/ White House are so tiny that it just guarantees a downgrade.

This plan does little to reduce size and scope of government and fails to address the deficit in any significant way.

We are at the brink of destruction. Stand Up, Stand Strong, and Stand United.

Please tell your Congressman/Senators to block the bill, and tell them you prefer solutions such as The Penny Plan. (see below) That would be a real start.

Here is a copy of the article from Newsmax.Com.

Rep. Connie Mack says the American people want a solution to the debt and deficit problem, not more “gimmicks and schemes,” so the Florida Republican cannot vote for a compromise that ensures continued skyrocketing debt.

“I don’t think the American people are looking for a deal or a compromise – they’re looking for a solution to the problem,” Mack said today on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “And the problem we have is we have a deficit of about $1.5 trillion and debt at over $14 trillion. And with this plan moving forward, we ensure ourselves that we are going to have over $17 trillion in debt without solving the problem, which is cutting spending.”

Mack said that, although he cannot vote for the deal, he believes it will pass.

“I think that Speaker Boehner has done a great job of pushing this debate, bringing it back to the principles we believe in,” he said. “But at the end of the day, I can’t vote for something that is going to ensure that we are going to have over $17 trillion in debt without a real solution to cutting spending in Washington.

“The American people . . . they want a solution to the debt and deficit problem, not more gimmicks and schemes,” Mack said.

Host Joe Scarborough asked Connie Mack what kind of a deal he could accept.

“The deal I would vote for would cut 1 percent a year for six years, cap spending at 18 percent of GDP, [and] balance the budget in eight years,” Mack said, referring to the bill he introduced in the House, the One Percent Spending Reduction Act, also known as the “Penny Plan.”

“I haven’t heard anything over the last few weeks that I could support,” he continued. “Because at the end of the day, Joe – and what I think people are failing to see here – is the problem is the debt and the deficit, and we need to get real spending cuts now.

“And when people continue to do the gimmicks and play games, that’s what frustrates the American people.”

I emailed Congressman Diane Black (5th District) and told her that the Wilson Co. Tea Party was AGAINST the Capital/White House debt ceiling plan. We don’t want more debt. We can’t handle the debt that we have now, much less add another couple of two trillion to it. I old her it does little to address size and scope of government and the tiny amount of cuts that it does address won’t help our credit rating NOT to be lowered.
I also sent her this article from News Max.com. (I had sent her the Penny Plan last week as well.)

Sherrie Orange
WCTP Chairman

The House has passed HR2560 (Cut, Cap and Balance) and a companion bill will be considered in the Senate on Saturday (S1340).

From Tea Party Patriots:

McConnell Plan, Gang of Six Plan

The Senate will vote on Cut, Cap, and Balance on Saturday. In the meantime, there are 2 other plans we need to watch carefully and take action on: the McConnell plan and the Gang of Six plan. Both plans will raise the debt ceiling.

The McConnell plan does so without forcing any spending cuts at all and by allowing Congress to abdicate its duty to the President. Rep. Joe Walsh has written a letter objecting to this plan as have over 80 Congressmen who have co-signed the letter. He needs at least 121 to sign it.

The Gang of Six plan is still mostly bullet points and there is no supporting legislation for it yet. Here is Rep. Paul Ryan’s analysis of it so far.

We need you to take 3 actions today:

1. Call both of your Senators and tell them to vote NO on both the McConnell plan and the Gang of Six plan. In both offices, ask how the Senator intends to vote. If you cannot get through to the DC office, call one of the local offices in your state.

2. Call your Republican Congressman and ask whether the Congressman has co-signed Congressman Walsh’s letter yet. If not, ask when they intend to do so. If you cannot get through to the DC office, call one of the local offices in your state.

3. Report back to us at support@teapartypatriots.org and let us know how each Senator intends to vote and whether the Republican Congressmen will co-sign Congressman Walsh’s letter.

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