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Hello, this is Congressman Wally Herger. Thank you for visiting my website for the final
presentation about our nation’s debt crisis. We have discussed the major causes of the
crisis and its negative impact on job creation. Now I want to give you an overview of the
Republican solutions for stopping the debt crisis and creating jobs, called the Path
to Prosperity. House Republicans recently introduced our
Fiscal Year 2012 budget, which sets spending and revenue targets for the next 10 years
and offers commonsense proposals to achieve them. This budget recognizes that the unsustainable
growth in federal spending is driving our nation’s debt crisis. It starts by cutting
6 trillion dollars in federal spending over the next ten years. As you can see here, it
puts our nation on a dramatically different course than the catastrophic status quo, reducing
spending as a share of our economy to far below the historic average. It understands
that the federal government is too big and needs to return to the far more limited role
envisioned by our Founding Fathers. This graph shows that dramatically cutting
spending would stop the debt crisis in its tracks. Under the Republican budget, the size
of our debt as a share of our economy would decline sharply, eventually allowing our nation
to pay off the debt entirely. Over the next decade, it would reduce the debt burden by
returning non-security discretionary spending back to pre-stimulus levels, and by making
cost-saving structural improvements to the Medicaid program. It would also expand Medicare
choice plans for younger Americans to save the program for the 21st century. As the first
presentation showed, the unsustainable growth in entitlement spending is the main cause
of the escalating debt crisis. Without bold action to modify these programs, our debt
will reach unprecedented levels that experts believe would destroy our economy.
Unfortunately, the debt the crisis is already undermining economic growth and making it
more difficult for Americans out of work to find a job. But as you can see here, the Republican
budget would create much-needed jobs. According to independent analysts, our budget would
create 800,000 jobs next year alone and boost the number of working Americans throughout
the decade. Tackling the debt through serious spending cuts will strengthen confidence in
our economy and encourage small businesses to invest and hire new workers. It is a critical
part of a responsible jobs agenda. This chart provides a side-by-side comparison
of the Republican budget and President Obama’s budget. As you can see, the President’s
budget would undermine job creation, add to the tax burden on the American people, increase
spending by another $400 billion, and maintain the bloated size of the federal government.
In sharp contrast, the Republican budget would spur job creation, free the American people
from Washington’s massive debt burden, repeal and defund the President’s health care overhaul,
and reduce the size and scope of the federal government. It is clear that the two budgets
reflect substantially different principles and priorities. As Congress debates future
spending, I strongly believe the Republican plan is bold and responsible, and would put
our nation on the path to prosperity.