Friday, March 5, 2010

Congress must cut spending to pay down our debt and regain our position of strength

The U.S. government’s pattern of irresponsible spending has led to a $12.4 trillion national debt, which already poses great risk to the prosperity and freedom of every man, woman and child in America who each share $41,000 of that burden, Congressional Candidate Frank Guinta told a Town Hall meeting crowd in Londonderry.



With the current leadership in Congress and in the White House, however, the problem is only going to get worse, he said. The current fiscal year’s national budget is operating with a $1.4 trillion deficit, and President Barack Obama has proposed a budget for next year with a $1.9 trillion deficit. That’s before any other special programs the current Congress proposes to waste the people’s hard-earned dollars.

“Our government has stolen our checkbook and has gone wild with borrowing, and spending, and printing money to the point where most of the country is deeply concerned,” said Guinta, the former mayor of Manchester.

“It’s no longer a partisan concern,” Guinta continued. “There [are] concerns [among] Republicans, Independents and Democrats about the direction of our country, the lack of fiscal discipline and responsibility, the new policies of taking over government, of being intrusive in our lives--things that I don’t believe we believe is right in New Hampshire.”



While on his tour of the first district, voters have told Frank repeatedly how they are looking for lower taxes and fairness and equity in a simpler tax system, which are things the candidate said he supports.

“Most people tell me: Constrain spending and reduce the size of government, and do it effectively,” Guinta said. We must “figure out what areas of government are larger than they should be and what areas of government shouldn’t even exist or provide the services they’re providing.”

Ultimately, voters are depending on the people they send to Washington to find solutions to reduce spending, lower taxes and pay down the debt and deficit, Guinta said. The current Congress is just not getting this done.

“How many members of Congress know how much money they’re spending overall in any line item or in any department?,” Guinta said. “We need to get back to that approach, then we can get back to the idea that we can reduce the spending and the liabilities in our country.”

Guinta also said that Congress is putting America in a position of weakness by depending on countries such as China to fund our debt.

“When we spend money that we don’t have, we’re printing or we’re borrowing,” Guinta said. “When you print it, it devalues the dollar. When you borrow it, it puts someone else in control. We talk about being the greatest country. We want to be self sufficient, whether it comes to energy independence, or monetary independence, we don’t want to rely on some other nation.”