WASHINGTON – In the next phase of a campaign to freeze the debt in 2013, forcing $1 trillion in federal spending cuts next year, GOP presidential candidates are receiving registered letters this week asking them to respond to a question no one else is asking: "Will you promise not to keep borrowing money if elected?"
The letters come from Joseph Farah, editor and chief executive officer of WND, who is spearheading the "No More Red Ink" campaign – a yearlong effort to persuade Republicans in Congress, Republican candidates for Congress and Republican presidential candidates for Congress to take a pledge to freeze the debt limit in January 2013.
"This is a very bold campaign to ensure America remains a nation committed to constitutionally limited government no matter who is elected president in 2012," said Farah. "I'm deeply concerned about the future of our country and believe time is running out to save it from disaster. We need to cut $1 trillion from the federal government, and the next – and maybe last – opportunity we have to do it is in 2013."
Of the current field of GOP candidates for president, only Ron Paul has vowed to get spending under control this way.
"Republicans have talked for decades about their commitment to limited government, the Constitution, overspending and debt," Farah says. "But when they had a chance to freeze the debt limit in 2011, only 22 House Republicans voted to do it. We need 218 votes in the House to do it next year. We'll have another chance if Republicans win the Senate. And we'll have a third chance if a Republican is elected president. But Republicans need to hear from the American people in overwhelming numbers if we are to have a chance to accomplish this goal."
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That's what the "No More Red Ink" campaign is all about. Launched in January 2011, the campaign has delivered more than 1 million red letters to House Republicans urging them to freeze the debt – simply by voting no to any debt increase. However, the House Republican majority voted to approve raising the debt limit last summer and gave up its unilateral authority to stop further debt limit increases until the next session of Congress.
"It's time to stop the buckpassing by Republicans," Farah says. "If they want to cut out the borrowing madness, they have the power. This campaign will either succeed in solving this nightmare once and for all or reveal to the American people in no uncertain terms that Republican officeholders are simply enabling Democrats to wreck the economy, destroy America's credit rating and trash the Constitution’s commitment to limited government."
Farah will similarly be seeking pledges from all current Republican members of the House and Senate and all Republican candidates for the House and Senate. He is soliciting the support of Americans to do everything they can to get such commitments from Republican candidates and current members of Congress.
"We can't afford to miss another opportunity to demand responsibility from Washington," Farah says. "It's time to separate the men from the boys and the wheat from the chaff. Democrats and Republicans can bicker all they want about the differences between them, but if the difference between them are meaningless when they hold office, it's a difference without a distinction. My plan is designed to turn America around no matter who is elected president in 2012. Even if Barack Obama is re-elected, Republicans are still likely to hold on to this powerful unconventional weapon. The question is whether they have the guts to use it."
The simple vow Farah is asking GOP presidential candidates to make is this: "I pledge to my constituents and to the American people that I will oppose any and all efforts to allow the federal government to borrow additional money by raising the debt limit, thereby forcing Washington to begin living within its means as taxpayers and their families must do."
In addition to asking Americans to spread the word about the pledge, Farah is asking all those who agree with him to send more letters about the plan to current Republican members of the House to lay the groundwork for what he calls "a revolution in Washington" next January. Participants in the "No More Red Ink" campaign can send red letters to each and every House Republicans by Federal Express delivery for only $29.99.
"The power of this campaign is amazing," Farah said. "It's one of the most effective and inexpensive, grass-roots lobbying efforts ever devised. So far we have delivered over 1 million letters. But we may need to send 10 million to get the job done."