Budget freeze needed

Sun., Nov. 20, 2011

The budget supercommittee seems to be deadlocked over the Democrats’ insistence on raising taxes and the Republicans’ opposition to attempts to decrease our annual budget deficits.

Along comes Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., who proposes to end the deadlock with $700 billion in spending cuts and $500 billion in tax increases, for a $1.2 trillion deficit reduction over 10 years. This equates to spending cuts of $70 billion per year, and with about a $3.4 trillion annual budget represents about a 2 percent cut. Due to baseline budgeting, which programs in about an 8 percent increase in spending per year, the 2 percent cut would actually represent a 6 percent actual increase in spending. Does anyone wonder why there is no confidence in our government?

Why can’t they just freeze spending and stop digging the hole deeper?

Mark Richard

Spokane

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