Budget Plan Doesn't Fix The Problem - One Cent Solution Gains Momentum

The debt deal that passed Congress yesterday fails to address the fiscal crisis. How does it fall short?

No Balance: The plan fails to achieve a balanced budget, or even to lay out balance as a meaningful goal. Without this goal, deficit spending will continue and the American people will fail to coalesce behind the effort.

Too Small: As advertised, the spending cuts in this package are less than one-third of the total projected deficit over the next ten years, and the deficits ten years from now will still be measured in the hundreds of billions.

Revenues: The plan opens the door for raising taxes as part of the deficit reduction plan. Countries that try to tax their way out of a fiscal crisis tend to fail. We need to keep Congress focused on the problem — excessive federal spending.

Convoluted: Exactly how much deficit reduction is in the plan and how is it achieved? How many stages does Congress need to work through to get there? To work effectively, a deficit reduction plan needs to be simple, and this plan isn’t simple.

Back-Ended: As with many congressional reforms in the past, the deficit reduction in this plan is back-loaded, with few cuts in the beginning and most of the cuts coming years from now.

No Entitlement Reforms: The only way to fix our fiscal crisis is to reform Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare. The enforcement rules in this plan exclude Social Security and Medicaid, and limit any spending cuts to Medicare. As a result, it’s unlikely the plan will result in real reforms to our entitlement programs.

In comparison, the One Cent Solution is simple and straightforward. Rather than chase arbitrary savings targets, the One Cent Solution seeks to balance the budget in the near term, a goal every American can understand and get behind.

And rather than two or three different stages, there’s only one — cap overall spending, and enforce those caps with tough, across-the-board cuts if Congress fails to act.

And the One Cent Solution doesn’t use inflated spending “baselines” to achieve its deficit reduction. When we say the One Cent Solution would reduce spending by one percent per year, we really mean federal spending on discretionary and entitlement programs will decline by one percent from the previous year’s level.

Finally, the One Cent Solution includes no exceptions for any federal programs. The entire federal budget is on the table in our plan.

So the plan before Congress represents a missed opportunity. Rather than set a goal of balancing the budget and then making the tough decisions necessary to get there, the plan before Congress represents a least common denominator approach to our fiscal challenge.

To help us win this fight, sign the One Cent Solution petition and ask your representatives to cosponsor legislation — HR 1848 by Congressman Connie Mack and S 1316 by Senator Mike Enzi — to implement the One Cent Solution.

If you don’t see your Senator on that list, please contact them and make sure they know about this budget reduction plan!

Contact any fiscally conservative Democrat Senators and Representatives as well. (Do those still exist? LOL)

This is something that can be acceptable to fiscally conservative Senators and Representatives... someone like Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Junior Senator from WV and fiscally conservative Governor of WV before being voted to the Senate on his call to reform our financial house, reduce the budget, and to make sensible plans without acting hastily. He also voted against the Obama stimulus plan. Find people like him and get his support on this plan as well!

Just found the list of the 56 House sponsors of The Penny Plan now too:

HR 1848, the One Percent Spending Reduction Act of 2011, currently has 56 cosponsors in the House of Representatives:

Arizona
Jeff Flake (R, AZ-6)
Trent Franks (R, AZ-2)

California
John Campbell (R, CA-48)
Mary Bono Mack (R, CA-45)
Dana Rohrabacher (R, CA-46)

Florida
Sandy Adams (R, FL-24)
John Mica (R, FL-7)
Jeff Miller (R, FL-1)
Bill Posey (R, FL-15)
David Rivera (R, FL-25)
Tom Rooney (R, FL-16)
Dennis Ross (R, FL-12)
Steve Southerland (R, FL-2)
Cliff Stearns (R, FL-6)
Allen West (R, FL-22)

Georgia
Paul Broun (R, GA-10)
Phil Gingrey (R, GA-11)
Austin Scott (R, GA-8)
Lynn Westmoreland (R, GA-3)

Indiana
Dan Burton (R, IN-5)
Todd Rokita (R, IN-4)
Marlin Stutzman (R, IN-3)

Iowa
Steve King (R, IA-5)

Louisiana
Jeff Landry (R, LA-3)

Maryland
Roscoe Bartlett (R, MD-6)

Michigan
Dan Benishek (R, MI-1)
Bill Huizenga (R, MI-2)

Missouri
Sam Graves (R, MO-6)
Blaine Leutkemeyer (R, MO-9)

New Jersey
Scott Garrett (R, NJ-5)

New Mexico
Steve Pearce (R, NM-2)

North Carolina
Howard Coble (R, NC-6)
Virginia Foxx (R, NC-5)
Patrick McHenry (R, NC-10)

Ohio
Jim Jordan (R, OH-4)

Oklahoma
John Sullivan (R, OK-1)

South Carolina
Jeff Duncan (R, SC-3)
Trey Gowdy (R, SC-4)
Mick Mulvaney (R, SC-5)
Joe Wilson (R, SC-2)

South Dakota
Kristi Noem (R, SD)

Tennessee
Marsha Blackburn (R, TN-7)
John Duncan, Jr. (R, TN-2)

Texas
Joe Barton (R, TX-6)
Blake Farenthold (R, TX-27)
Louie Gohmert (R, TX-1)
Sam Johnson (R, TX-3)
Kenny Marchant (R, TX-24)
Randy Neugebauer (R, TX-19)
Ted Poe (R, TX-2)
Pete Sessions (R, TX-32)
Mac Thornberry (R, TX-13)

Utah
Jason Chaffetz (R, UT-3)

Wisconsin
Reid Ribble (R, WI-8)

Wyoming
Cynthia Lummis (R, WY)

Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY) introduced S. 1316, the One Percent Spending Reduction Act of 2011, in the United States Senate. So far, this bill has five cosponsors:

Florida
Marco Rubio (R)

Kentucky
Rand Paul (R)

Texas
Kay Bailey Hutchison (R)

Utah
Mike Lee (R)

Wyoming
John Barrasso (R)

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