I wonder if President Obama read what so many others did last month in The Washington Post: that Virginia will enjoy a $220 million budget surplus despite the struggling economy. If not the Post, then surely the President glanced over a recent issue of The Economist in which Governor Chris Christie is congratulated for closing “an unprecedented $11 billion budget gap…without increasing taxes.”
Virginia and New Jersey are not immune to rising unemployment and lackluster consumer confidence. Both Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie are in their first terms and both inherited ballooning deficits, $1.8 billion and $10.7 billion, respectively. And neither governor has the advantage of complete party control in the state legislature as the President currently enjoys in Congress.
So how did they do it? McDonnell says that Virginia managed to close its budget shortfall without raising taxes by reducing state spending and “implementing private sector principles of rewarding fiscal discipline and sound management of scarce resources.” No longer will state agencies spend their allocated money down to the last dime.
Christie, too, put New Jersey back in the black by cutting unnecessary spending. Despite the political risks, Christie looked everywhere for ways to slim down the budget, even eliminating types of school aid. He also cut $848 million from property tax rebates.
Here in Washington, despite the President’s political capital, the Democrats failed to even propose a budget—for the first time in three decades—much less find ways to create a surplus.
The United States has a $1.5 trillion deficit and owes $13 trillion in debt. Unemployment is hovering around ten percent. And who knows the true cost of the massive healthcare and financial reform laws that will not fully kick in for a few years. Despite skyrocketing spending, the Democrats are set to increase taxes on the American people starting January 1, 2011. Indeed, without Congressional action, Americans will be burdened with $3.1 trillion in higher taxes across the board.
People across the country are finding ways to scrape together and save money in these tough economic times. The President and the Democratic leadership are running out of ways to explain why the government can’t keep its fiscal house in order. While many agree a targeted and temporary stimulus package was warranted, Washington is hard-pressed to find anyone who believes that growing the national debt by $4.9 billion a day is healthy.
Americans are frustrated with watching politicians and academics argue about economics while citizens are still looking for relief. There is no question that our economy is in need of serious reform. Republicans and Democrats differ ideologically on how best to jumpstart the economy, and we disagree on the proper role of the federal government in the private sector. But we owe it to the American people to find some common ground.
We can cut spending. We can find outdated and redundant federal programs that do not need additional funding. We can find ridiculous pet programs on which federal dollars do not need to be wasted. We can work toward balancing the federal budget.
Before breaking for the August district work period, I voted in favor of a Republican measure to prohibit taxpayer funding for first-class subsidies on Amtrak, saving taxpayers up to $1.2 billion over ten years. Before that I voted to prohibit the funding of promotional signage for stimulus projects, saving taxpayers tens of millions of dollars.
These are small cuts in the grand scheme of things, but a step in the right direction is better than not walking at all. It is time for our government to get its fiscal house in order once and for all.
Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R) represents West Virginia’s Second Congressional District.