From: Chris
To: townhall@algore2000.com
My question concerns the National debt and the balanced federal budget. Like most Americans I have credit cards and I think of the National debt as our collective credit card. Now that the Federal budget is balanced, I hear many politicians talking about tax cuts. Just as I try to pay more of my credit card debt when I have extra money, I wonder if it is a better idea for the Federal Government to try to pay more of our debt rather than hand out tax cuts. According to the U.S. National Debt Clock website (www.brillig.com/debt_clock), every American citizen would need to contribute more than 20,000 dollars to pay this debt. What are your views concerning paying off the National debt, the current balanced budget, and future tax cuts?
Chris, thank you for your question. Over the past seven years, America has enjoyed unprecedented economic expansion and prosperity. We have done it through hard work, fiscal prudence and investments in our people. The budget surpluses that have resulted offer us an extraordinary opportunity to build upon those successes. By paying down the national debt, we have the opportunity to keep interest rates low, which will help businesses and homeowners invest in their future and keep our prosperity going.
That is why I have proposed devoting the entire Social Security surplus - a total of $2.2 trillion over ten years - to shoring up the Social Security Trust Fund for at least the next half-century, and devoting a portion of the expected non-Social Security surpluses to paying off the national debt completely by 2013. I would also increase our national investment in public and higher education, health care and helping communities grow while protecting open space and preserving livable neighborhoods. And I would target tax relief and incentives to help working families pay for child care, college and lifelong education and long-term care for aging and disabled relatives, to eliminate the "marriage penalty" and to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit to help the working poor.
We have the best opportunity in a generation to pay off our national debt and address our long-term problems. Let's do everything we can now to invest in a future where all our people are better off.
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