Posted by
TheHistorian on Wednesday, April 02, 2008 9:59:29 PM
Today I received the following information in an email newsletter from Senator Voinovich:
As
most Ohioans know, Sen. Voinovich has long championed fiscal
responsibility, and has become known as the Senate’s top “debt hawk.”
However, helping people understand just how dire our fiscal situation
is can be difficult. The senator wants Ohioans to know the truth about
where we are as a nation – a truly inconvenient truth that starts with
the national debt. Each month – at the beginning of this electronic
newsletter – we will be sharing with you a “debt calculator” that gives
an estimate of the current U.S. debt as well as your share of that
debt. Why is this important? Because the government is wasting your tax
dollars paying off the interest on the debt to creditors – including
the Chinese government – instead of focusing on our priorities. How
much are we paying? Last year, nearly 13 percent of our budget went to
paying off the interest on our debt, and we’re not even touching the
principle. That’s nearly $350 billion of your tax money. If paying the
debt was a government program, it would be the fourth largest, right
behind Social Security, Medicare and national defense. [source: OMB] The time to act is now, before it’s too late.
Currently, the national debt is estimated at: $9,411,108,874,962.61
Your share of that debt: $30,983.14
Thank you for this information, Senator Voinovich. I agree with all of the information, but must point out some facts which YOU may find inconvenient.
- In your next item, you say that you are Fighting for First Responders . Why is this a Federal mandate. You politicians stand at the trough and split up funding which is NOT a Federal responsibility. Please explain to your constituents how this is a FEDERAL priority. I believe you cannot.
- Senator Voinovich also reports that he is Meeting With Ohio's Farmers. Unfortunately, the issue that he discussed, the transfer of National Pollution Discharge Elimination System authority from the OHIO EPA to the OHIO DNR is NOT an issue for a US Senator. Senator Voinovich should instead concern himself with issues that are ongoing in the Senate in Washington, DC.
Some of the things I would suggest he do are as follows:
Senator Voinovich is largely responsible for the largest tax increase in history which will occur in 2010. Not only will income taxes go back up to 2000 levels, but the Death Tax (called the Inheritance Tax) will go back up to its 2000 levels of 40% after having been 0 the year before and not being indexed for inflation for 10 years. This "deficit hawk" is very responsible for this, and refused to go above $350 billion for the tax breaks. Unfortunately for Senator Voinovich, the tax cuts actually INCREASED the percent of GDP which the Federal Government is collecting in taxes over the average from 1965 to 1995. Source:
Heritage Foundation chart. Now the "deficit hawk" is telling everybody that taxes MUST increase Source:
AP Article. Sending more money to Washington, DC will help EVERY Ohio resident, won't it, Senator Voinovich? Because that is what you are REALLY proposing to do.
When we sent Senator Voinovich to Washington, DC, the Federal expenditures were $1.3 trillion dollars. Seventeen years later (2008), the total Federal outlay is $2.9 trillion. That is a growth of 4.7 percent compounded annually. See the
Congressional Budget Office summary. If I had grown my family budget like that, I would be going in the hole hugely also; you would be spending about 2.5 times what you spent in 1991. Voinovich has FAILED to take on his opponents and friends in this spending. The "deficit hawk" forgot the expenditure part of the equation.
Senator Voinovich makes the point that interest is a large component of the budget. However, according to the GPO link above, interest as a percent of outlays has SHRUNK since Senator Voinovich went to Washington. Why, now, is he raising the alarm?
Finally, Senator Voinovich totally sidesteps the issue of Social Security and Medicare indebtedness. According to the 2008 calculations released a few days ago, the deficit for 2008 in the Federal budget is estimated to be #9.8 trillion. However, Social Security is much worse: The
Social Security Administration has estimated that this deficit is $17.1 trillion, which is twice what the Federal deficit is.
Senator Voinovich is a typical rich Republican who has lost touch with Ohio's people and problems. The Republicans need to give those like me a choice that is better than he by 2010, or he will lose his seat just like Mike DeWine lost his.