Senator
Barak Obama lays out in the Chicago Tribune today a common sense plan to carve $100 billion dollars for Gulf Coast reconstruction using a combination of spending cuts and deferring or canceling Bush's tax cuts for millionaires:
Every family knows that it's one thing to use a credit card; it's another thing to keep spending money you don't have. You have to "Pay as You Go," which is a rule most Americans live by. Washington once did too, until the White House and Senate Republicans abandoned it to push through the president's tax breaks.
The latest example of this irresponsibility is Congress' plan to pass $70 billion in additional tax breaks despite record-breaking deficits. Clearly, old habits are hard to break.
It's time for a return to responsibility in the budget process.
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Obama calls for shared sacrifices--not just the wealthy foregoing tax cuts, but states and localities foregoing "initiatives", aka pork, based on a two-year moratorium on all such "pet projects and other local spending.
And if we can compromise and put Obama's call for shared sacrifice into action beyond the hurricane relief effort:
The American people are willing to sacrifice for their country--they're willing to give when there is need, to contribute where they can help. People also know what it's like to live within your means--to spend only what you can and be responsible for what you owe.
Americans expect their government to act that way too. It's time for all of us in Washington to put away old habits and rise above partisan politics so that we can meet those expectations.
If we can collaborate on paying for Gulf Coast reconstruction in a bipartisan manner now, we'll have a model for tackling our long-term budgetary challenges in the future.
Will this common sense actually get anywhere? Probably not until we elect a Democratic Congress.