ISSUES
ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION IS OUT OF CONTROL
Open borders are now a security threat. We do not know how many are coming across, except that the number is very large, but we do know that some are coming with bad intentions and that all such entry is illegal. Suddenly, this is a major talking point for Democrats during an election year. And we are supposed to believe that they will control illegal immigration after Biden has opened our borders with the support of Democrats in Congress? Instead of talk, it is time to finish the wall, deport illegal aliens, and stop providing benefits and services to people whose presence is a violation of our laws.
COST OF LIVING AND INFLATION
Liberal policies are bankrupting our country and our state. Just a short time ago, we were a prosperous nation, and California was a destination for Americans. Now, there is a mass exodus of families who just can’t take it anymore. Some can’t afford it, and others see a better life elsewhere. This is a shameful result of Democrat policies. Cost-of-living continues to increase and inflation is out of control, making it hard to afford food or a tank of gas and leaving many Americans unable to buy a home. It doesn’t have to be like this!
FEDERAL BUDGET AND SPENDING
Problems with the federal budget are less obvious, and we have heard about budget deficits and debt for so many years that we have become desensitized to an approaching financial catastrophe.
Meanwhile, career politicians in Washington DC are spending our money like it is being printed in the White House basement. The federal budget may not be making headlines, but its failure would overshadow our other problems.
To begin, the federal budget uses numbers in the billions and trillions that are hard to comprehend. One way to think about these numbers is by comparing them to spending a dollar per second (day and night). This would take about 33 years to reach a billion dollars, so counting $2 billion is possible in an average lifespan. But reaching a trillion dollars would take 33 thousand years – which is a very long time.
Only 26 years ago, in 1998 – when my opponent was first elected, the federal budget was balanced and the national debt was $6 trillion.
Last year, the annual budget deficit approached $2 trillion, the national debt grew to $34 trillion ($100,000 for every legal resident, including children – so the federal government has burdened a family of 5 with ½ million dollars of debt), and interest on the national debt had grown to nearly $900 billion – greater than the spending for national defense. Interest on the national debt is now crowding out programs that we expect the federal government to provide.
This is not sustainable!
THE NATIONAL SECURITY PROBLEM NO ONE TALKS ABOUT
If I can figure this out, our adversaries in Russia and China must know it too, so debt has also become a national security problem. We need to cap federal spending before interest on the national debt crowds out all other government programs, and this debt reduces our ability to respond to threats here and abroad.
IMPORTANCE OF THIS ELECTION
In just 26 years, we have become a nation that relies on borrowing to support the federal government. We’ve heard past elections called “most important”. Then they’re over, and life goes on about the same. But we cannot escape the federal budget. The media is not treating this as a crisis, but it should. Because it is not sustainable.
Failure of the federal budget would be hardest on those who depend on its support as broken promises, stopped payments, and lost jobs accumulate. And this would be a non-partisan problem because we would all feel it. If the federal house-of-cards falls, cutbacks by state and local governments using federal funds would multiply the effects. And the part of the world that relies on the United States as a marketplace and for security would also feel the shock. This might not be doomsday, but it would hurt.
The importance of this election is that fixing the federal budget must begin now. If not, painful changes will be needed. We must stop growth of federal spending, while protecting the Social Security and Medicare that we have already paid for; and promote economic growth to increase revenue, so that we can pay down deficits and eventually reduce the national debt. It took over 20 years to dig this hole, and many years will be needed to fill it.
The same Congressmen who created deficits, debt, open borders, and inflation will not solve these problems.
DATA AND CALCULATIONS FOR 2023
The information below shows the condition of the federal budget in 2023. This does not include spending that was authorized later in 2023 and led to further increases in the national debt.
Totals:
– Total Revenue: $4.439 trillion (includes on- and off-budget)
– Total Outlays: $6.134 trillion (includes on- and off-budget)
– Deficit (difference between revenue and outlays):
-$1.695 trillion
Mandatory Outlays
(Already paid for by Americans or promised by the federal government):
– Social Security: $1.416 trillion
– Medicare: $1.024 trillion
– Interest on Public Debt: $0.879 trillion
– Veterans Benefits and Services: $0.301 trillion
– Total of Mandatory Outlays:
$3.620 trillion
Discretionary Revenue
(To pay for everything else, calculated by the difference between Total Revenue and Mandatory Outlays.):
$4.439 – $3.620 = $0.819 trillion
National Defense Spending: $0.776 trillion
The above income and spending information is taken from the “Joint Statement of Janet L. Yellen, Secretary of the Treasury, and Shalanda D. Young, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, on Budget Results for 2023” which was published by the US Department of the Treasury and is available on-line. This report was prepared by
members of the Biden Administration, so exaggeration of spending, deficits, and debt are not likely.
The National Debt is now $34+ trillion, and interest rates have gone up, so even national defense spending might require borrowed money.
This debt has been accumulated under both Democrat and Republican Presidents and control of Congress. Fixing it will require cooperation.