C060323 Budget Surpluses

That's the amount of money the federal government paid down the
federal debt during the last three years of the Clinton administration.
There was discussion of retiring the national debt by 2013 and
putting the interest savings along the way to shoring up social
security. Really...there was. How far we have fallen in just 6 years.
Another $2.5 trillion added to the federal debt since then and with a
Republican controlled Congress for nearly the entire time.

I was one of those that cheered the fall of the Democratic controlled
House of Representatives in 1994. The Republicans would bring the
budget under control after discussing doing that for over 20 years.
And they did. They forced compromise from President Clinton and
created three consecutive years of federal budget surplus.

We all remember the huge numbers tossed about in those stock market crazy days of 2000. The federal budget
surplus will be over $1.5 trillion during the next 5 years. Uh oh, we thought. Congress has to mess with something
that is working. They couldn't possible leave it alone for too many years.

Was the public clamoring for reduced taxes? No. That's one of our problems, we don't make enough noise when
things are working right. "Stay the course", we should have yelled in unison. But no, Congress licked their lips in
2001 and passed the largest tax cut ever. Large tax cuts that will still produce budget surpluses, they said. We
had heard it all before and still let Congress do it to us again. Our bad!

Since September 11, 2001, federal nondefense discretionary spending has increased at nearly three times the
rate of inflation. This doesn't include the out of control so-called non-discretionary spending, such as Medicare,
Social Security, and the new Prescription Drug benefits. This much "extra" spending at a time of war must be
looked at by those living during World War II as confusing and disappointing. They were asked to sacrifice so
much so that our extra spending went for the war effort. This Congress and the ones since 2001 just open up the
check book and say "How much do you need?"

Section I, Members of Congress forfeit their salary for the next six months if a full and complete federal
budget for the next fiscal year is not passed before the Sept. 1st. that falls before Oct. 1st, the beginning of
the next fiscal year. Members of Congress forfeit their salary for the next twelve months if a full and complete
federal budget for the next fiscal year is not passed before the Sept. 15th. that falls before Oct. 1st, the
beginning of the next fiscal year. The Washington D.C.staff of members of Congress forfeit their salary for the
next 6 months if the budget for the fiscal year is not passed before the Sept. 15th. that falls before Oct. 1st,
the beginning of the next fiscal year. No continuing resolutions or other contrived means shall extend these
deadlines without 3/4 plus one vote approval by both houses of Congress and an explicit declaration of war in
effect by the same Congress for more than 2 months.

Section II, Consent by Congress shall be given by a 2/3 plus one vote of members, to increase discretionary
spending by more than 2.0% over previous fiscal year for any federal department, except the departments of
defense and homeland security. Consent by Congress shall be given by a 2/3 plus one vote of members, to
increase the total amount of non-discretionary spending by more than 2.5% over previous fiscal year.