Federal Budget Reform

Our national debt is totally out of control and it is the fault of both Parties! They are bankrupting our country on things we can't afford and should not be funding. For example, when did it become the Government's responsibility to pay for childcare and pay off student loans?

According to a PBS NewsHour Report on May 23, 2023 (https://www.pbs.org/video/high-stakes-1684876469/) with some figures updated in a November 21, 2023 report (https://www.pbs.org/video/deep-debt-1700607991/):

Our current National Debt is $31.4 trillion (updated to $33.7 trillion in November report--only took 6 months to add $2.3 trillion more to our debt!!).
This amounts to over $94,000 for every man woman and child in America (updated to over $100,000 by my calculations in November!).
When viewed as a percentage of our economy, our debt soared from "only" 36% in 2000 to a whopping 98% today!
If nothing changes, in 30 years our debt is estimated to reach 200% of our total economic activity.
In the past year, we spent $749 billion to pay the interest on our debt -- this is almost the same amount we spent on our national defense!
If nothing changes, by 2050 half of our entire federal budget will be used just to pay the interest on our debt!

Make no mistake, the "holier than thou" nonsense perpetrated by the House Republicans in holding hostage our debt ceiling increase in order to extort spending concessions from the Administration is pure hypocrisy. If the current President were a Republican, they would be saluting and spending whatever the President wanted – just like they did with George W. Bush (who racked up $6.1 trillion in debt) and Donald Trump (who racked up $8.2 trillion in debt—in only 4 years)! (https://www.self.inc/info/us-debt-by-president/) The deal they finally did reach is an absolute joke! It took only a few weeks for that to be proven when House Republicans want to use the alleged "savings" they negotiated to fund more gratuitous tax cuts.

It is time to pay the piper on our terms, before a financial crisis hits from which we cannot recover. I pledge to submit an annual balanced budget to Congress that includes funding to begin paying down our outrageous national debt. But assuming I am cornered by Congressional Party leaders to sign an appropriations bill that includes deficit spending they need to keep themselves in power, I pledge to veto any such bill unless it includes a corresponding debt ceiling increase, and hold those lawmakers then and there accountable for increasing our national debt!! I also pledge to do everything within my power to force Congress to submit their annual appropriations bills to me on time i.e. by September 30 of each year!! We need to stop the wasteful and insane Continuing Resolutions and threats of Government shutdowns because the Democrats and Republicans in Congress refuse to do their job. In fact, I will demand that Congress pass all 12 appropriations bills by July 31 or I will order Congress to remain in session until they do! Yes, everyone in Congress will be put on detention. Article 2, Section 3 of the Constitution gives the President the power to do this.

You can see for yourself the latest progress (or lack thereof) by Congress in passing the required 12 Appropriations Bills.

https://crsreports.congress.gov/AppropriationsStatusTable

One area of the budget process that is in great need of reform is in the "spend it or lose it mentality." It encourages waste, abuse, and discourages cost savings and efficiency. In my nearly 40-year career in Government-related employment, I have managed multimillion dollar budgets and overseen the expenditure of multibillion dollar budgets. One of my pet peeves is the annual "midyear and end-of-year" budget reviews that happen at every agency and military service. In simple terms, the Government has certain spending benchmarks for each budget item that must be reached throughout the year or that budget item risks losing its money. For example, if a particular item has not spent 50% of its money by the midyear review, there better be a good reason why or its unspent funds will be given to someone else who can more readily spend it. In these types of meetings, rarely discussed is the benefit derived from spending money on that particular item, only whether the money was spent on time!! Sometimes I think our only job in the Government is to spend money, not necessarily produce or deliver anything. There has to be a better way and I have a few ideas how. But they would require discussion and approval from Congress and I would pledge to engage Congress as well as the American people on this.