An emergency has been declared in Washington. Has violence broken out? Are we on the verge of war? Walking on nuclear eggshells? No, none of that. The specific emergency declared by Congress is the 2000 census.
Now the census isn’t exactly an emergency. We’ve known about it since the Constitution was ratified in 1790. What gives? Congress is simply claiming it’s an emergency so they can bust the budget caps and go on a spending spree. Just one more Washington lie.
Yet, while Congress is playing games, there is a real emergency the continued lack of seriousness and honesty on the part of those in Washington who handle the people’s money.
In the 1997 budget deal, the President and Congress agreed to budget caps to slow future spending increases. But career politicians saw it as another Washington photo-op, a nice fairytale for the folks back home. The spending caps give us a fighting chance against the looming crisis in Social Security and the $5.5 trillion in debt that crushes taxpayers with huge interest payments.
But to cynical career politicians the caps were meaningless the minute taxpayers turned off the evening news. The career politicians didn’t expect to deal with a group in the Congress who aren’t pursuing careers and thus are serious about keeping their word on the budget caps.
Those who made the Term Limits Pledge: Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Mark Sanford of South Carolina and others are fighting for honest accounting. They’re dealing with the real emergency in Washington.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.