Reed Calls for Congress to Stop the Insanity in Borrowing

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Congressional candidate Tom Reed is urging members of both parties to "Stop the insanity" in the Federal budget. "We must immediately begin to live within our means," Reed said. "Just like any family or business. We cannot bankrupt the nation. Our children and grandchildren deserve better. The borrowing must stop." 

Reed outlined several immediate and specific principles that Congress should use as a guide as it begins considering the $3.8 trillion budget submitted by the White House. 

1) No new domestic discretionary spending and a re-examination of ALL current spending. 

2) The more than $200 billion unallocated "stimulus" funds should NOT be borrowed and spent. 

3) The $700 million TARP fund repaid by banks should be returned to the treasury and not used to fund new spending. 

4) A hard cap on ALL spending indexed to rate of inflation. (The proposed spending freeze would halt increases for only a $447 billion – less than 12% of the budget.) 

5) In a struggling economy, we cannot raise taxes on businesses - businesses, not the government, are the source of new jobs. 

6) We must recognize the massive unfunded liabilities in Social Security and Medicare and create a plan to keep those programs solvent to meet promises made to tax payers. 

7) Absolutely no so-called second stimulus package. The first was a failure in that it did not make any long term improvement in the economy despite nearly $800 billion of borrowed money. 

"I call on Congressman Massa and all members of Congress to recognize the fiscal reality and vote against all 2011 any new or increased appropriations except for national defense or programs that go directly to job creation," Reed said. "It is time to stop the insanity and stop borrowing."

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