Dear Mr. Kukulinski:

Thank you for contacting me with you concerns on the 2011 budget crisis.  I appreciate you taking the time to contact me and I am happy to respond.

Our country is quickly going broke.  We are faced with the reality that the federal government is already over $14 trillion in debt, with much of that money owed to foreign governments who do not have our best interests in mind.  On top of that,  America’s out of control spending policies are resulting in annual deficits of over $1.5 trillion.

As you may know, unlike previous fiscal years, Congress has used a series of short term measures called “continuing resolutions” to fund the government.  Previously, I did not vote for any of the previous continuing resolutions for the following reasons.  First, I do not believe they came close to cutting enough spending.  As previously mentioned,  America’s projected federal deficit this year is $1.65 trillion.  Cutting $100 billion from that deficit is a nice gesture, but it only gets us one-sixteenth of the way to a balanced budget.  We can and must do better.  Furthermore, I was disappointed that H.R. 1 only included steep cuts to domestic non-defense discretionary spending, while leaving entitlement spending and funding for foreign wars untouched.  Domestic non-defense discretionary spending –which includes funding for highways and waterways, clean water, energy, national parks, federal law enforcement and many other things – accounts for roughly $660 billion, or 20 percent, of annual federal spending.  To put this in perspective, all domestic non-defense discretionary spending could be completely eliminated and we’d still have to find another roughly $900 billion dollars in spending cuts just to balance the budget this year.  The reality is that if Congress and the President are serious about putting this country on a sustainable fiscal path, we have no other choice but to reform entitlement programs and radically downsize overseas spending in addition to cutting domestic discretionary spending.

With that said, I was gravely disappointed in President Obama and the Senate’s lack of leadership in responding to House Republicans to negotiate a long-term continuing resolution to avert a government shutdown.  They appeared to be perfectly willing to shut down the government and continue taking a paycheck while our men and women in uniform and their families went without one in order to protect taxpayer funding for organizations like Planned Parenthood.  In my opinion, that’s just not right.  I believe strongly that if the federal government shuts down, Members of Congress and the President should not be paid.  I also believe strongly that the men and women of armed forces and their families should continue to be paid regardless.  To do otherwise would be unacceptable.  For that reason, while the compromise agreement to avert a government shutdown is not perfect, I will vote for it.

This is one of a series of small first steps on the long road to restoring  America’s fiscal future.  Bigger battles are just around the corner.  As they come, please be assured that I will continue to fight to stop wasteful spending, reduce the deficit and put our country back on track.  Thanks again for sharing your concerns with me.  If I can be of further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me.

 
Sincerely,

Walter B. Jones
Member of Congress