Building dikes against spending flood

Sen. Bob Corker

Today federal spending, as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product, is the highest it has been since the end of World War II. Federal spending stands at 24.6 percent of GDP, and the Obama budget blueprint anticipates a further increase to 26.8 percent in the next decade.

Currently, the total national debt stands at 63 percent of GDP and is expected to rise to 146 percent of GDP by 2030.

Tennessee GOP Sen. Bob Corker tells WND that's unacceptable, and he hopes to stop the country's move that direction with legislation he has introduced that would constrain spending to 20.6 percent of GDP – the 40-year average prior to the current fiscal crisis.

"It is hard for the other side to argue against the 20.6 percent average over the past 40 years," Corker said.

The senator compares the current spending binge with a household in his native Tennessee where earnings are $43,000 and spending is $71,500 – $28,500 more than the income.

Shock the Washington establishment by participating in the "No More Red Ink" campaign and shut down all new plans for bailouts, "stimulus" spending and even the funding for Obamacare.

Corker's CAP Act is similar to a budgetary outline that was introduced earlier this year by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., that would force Congress to spend $7.6 trillion less by 2022 than under current budget forecasts. Ryan's outline would constrain spending at 20.5 percent of GDP.

The senator hopes his bill will become part of the debate over the debt ceiling when it comes up for a vote this summer.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner "talks about deficit caps, which are a code word for [tax] increases," Corker said.

Corker believes this approach is not healthy for the economy and ignores the problem of out-of-control spending.

So far Corker has been able to garner bipartisan support from Democrats such as Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskell and West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, and independent Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman. He also enjoys strong Republican support for the bill.

"I have been in Washington for four years and three months, and when I go home to Tennessee, people tell me how irresponsible spending is," the senator said. "Well, I have promised them it is much worse than they think."

Congress has avoided responsibility for the spending problem, but Corker believes his bill is the best solution short of a constitutional balanced budget amendment to impose a "fiscal straight jacket."

Under current law, Social Security and other expenditures hide off budget, and this gives an inaccurate picture of how much money the federal government spends in a given year. But the CAP Act would put all federal spending on the budget and require Congress to make hard choices on funding levels until all spending is less than 20.6 percent of GDP.

Should Congress fail to do so, the Office of Management and Budget, the OMB, would be required to make evenly distributed budget cuts in order to bring spending down to a predetermined level. It would take a vote of two-thirds of both Houses of Congress to overcome.

Corker told WND he supports a balanced-budget amendment, but getting one passed could take two years to get through the ratification process and as many as seven years total, but the problem has to be dealt with now, not tomorrow.

The bill has elicited a cool reception from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, according to Corker.

"The White House is asking senators not to get on it," Corker said.

But he takes heart in the bipartisan support he has received and points to comments by Erskine Bowles, the Democratic co-chair of the president's deficit commission, to buttress his case. Bowles, who also served as Bill Clinton's chief of staff, called for keeping federal spending under 21 percent of all economic activity.

Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, praised Corker's legislation.

"Corker's legislation is a strong bulwark against spending increases in the future," Norquist said. "It is a good bill that focuses correctly on limiting spending without raising taxes."

The proposed legislation coincides with the "No More Red Ink" campaign, a high-tech, grass-roots lobbying effort targeting House Republicans, who have the power to stop further borrowing in its tracks.

WND CEO Joseph Farah, the "Red Ink" campaign organizer, says 2011 may represent America's last chance to change directions on reckless spending and borrowing policies. He points to a number of polls showing Americans opposed to increasing the debt limit by overwhelming numbers.

He said the House Republican majority has it within its own power, without any Democrats helping, to stop the borrowing and spending.

For $29.99, individual letters are delivered to each GOP member of the House asking them to freeze the debt limit and bring back constitutionally limited government and fiscal responsibility to Washington.