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FreedomWorks has submitted the following statement for the record to the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, for their hearing entitled “Examining the Root Causes of America’s Unsustainable Fiscal Path.”
On behalf of FreedomWorks’ activist community, I urge you to contact your representative and senators and ask them to cosponsor the Maximizing America’s Prosperity Act, H.R. 3930 and S. 2245. Introduced by Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) and Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.), the Maximizing America’s Prosperity Act would cap federal noninterest spending as a percentage of potential gross domestic product (GDP).
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- FreedomWorks Foundation today releases its booklet, Entitlement Reform: A Growing National Emergency, in response to the record $22 trillion national debt, with mandatory entitlement spending and interest on the debt being the primary drivers. Congressional Democrats continue to pay no heed to the problem, as evidenced by their repeated proposals to expand entitlement programs.
Since Democrats took control of the House, there has been no shortage of bad legislation that has either been pushed through the lower chamber or advocated by progressives. Democrats were set to consider yet another “caps deal” to bust its own spending maximums set under the Budget Control Act. The Democratic leadership has pulled it from the schedule as progressives and moderates in the party disagree on spending levels. Progressives, of course, want more spending on domestic programs.
House Democrats are considering pushing a massive tax Opens a New Window. hike on American workers, regardless of their income level, as part of a bill to expand Social Security. There’s no question that Social Security Opens a New Window. faces significant funding issues, but there are better ways to reform the program than increasing payroll taxes Opens a New Window. on every employer and worker.
On behalf of FreedomWorks activists nationwide, I urge you to contact your representative and senators ask them to support and co-sponsor the Retirement Freedom Act, H.R. 6703 and S. 3560, introduced by Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Ala.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). The bill would decouple Social Security benefits from Medicare Part A enrollment, allowing individuals if they so choose to to opt out of Medicare Part A without losing access to their Social Security benefits.
The alarm is sounding once again on federal spending, and few in Congress are paying attention serious problems that America faces if it doesn’t get the nation’s finances into order.
It is no secret that Social Security and Medicare will soon be insolvent. The updated Social Security and Medicare Trustees Report released earlier this month has confirmed that insolvency is still imminent, and will come even sooner than anticipated.
Opponents of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which delivered much-needed tax relief to the middle class and business owners large and small, have complained that the law is contributing to the increase in expected budget deficits over the next ten years. Certainly, budget deficits are a serious concern, and Congress has shown no interest in addressing the problem.
Fiscal conservatives rightly opposed the Bipartisan Budget Act, H.R. 1892, because it blew through the spending caps by nearly $300 billion over two years and set the tone for more long-term spending by increasing the baseline at which Congress will budget. Still, this two-year budget deal only covers discretionary spending for FY 2018 and FY 2019 and doesn't touch mandatory spending, which includes programs like Medicare and Social Security whose funding runs on autopilot.
FreedomWorks Foundation, American Legislative Exchange Council, Tea Party Patriots and Committee to Unleash Prosperity in partnership with a coalition of conservative organizations and prominent individuals, launched the Save Our Country Task Force.