The American people want a balanced budget and our government under control.
Most Americans believe that simply eliminating waste and corruption in government would be enough to balance the budget. This includes Democrats, who traditionally support large, centralized government. In one Gallup study, people estimated that 50 percent of government spending is waste.
On the fight between the House and Senate over whether spending could be cut below the debt-ceiling agreement, the American people were overwhelmingly with House Republicans. More than half of all Americans (57 percent) favored even deeper spending cuts while less than one quarter (22 percent) opposed additional cuts.
Of the 57 percent who said cutting government spending would benefit the economy, 22 percent said it would be “very good.” Only 7 percent thought it would be “very bad” for the economy to cut government spending.
In fact, the American people favor spending cuts so much that they would support a limited, temporary shutdown of the federal government to get it done. There’s a similar 57 percent to 22 percent margin in favor of cutting spending even if it takes a shutdown.
This depth of support from the American people even manifests itself in partisan questions. A full 51 percent of voters prefer a GOP candidate who wants a budget bill that cuts spending and is willing to allow noncritical parts of the government to shut down to pressure the president to sign it. Only 34 percent favor a Democratic candidate who wants a budget bill that continues to raise spending and opposes allowing noncritical parts of the government to shut down.
This gap in responses represents a 4-point gain from the generic ballot for the Republicans and a 7-point drop from the generic ballot for the Democrats. The generic ballot is a simple survey that asks people for their party preference for Congress. Interestingly, the largest gain in the GOP vote comes from independents (plus 13 percent) and Asians (plus 12 percent).
The current massive deficits and the enormous national debt hurt Americans and the United States in a number of ways. Just paying interest on the debt this year will exceed $1 trillion.
That’s right, we‘ll spend more paying interest to bond holders than we’ll spend on the entire Department of Defense. Bigger government deficits mop up capital that should go to creating jobs and increasing productivity. Bureaucrats guiding the economy is a disaster compared to the effectiveness of entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. Overregulating small business kills job creation.
If a business or a family had a debt burden on a scale with the United States, it would be considered a crisis that had to be solved. It’s a crisis for the United States, and it must be solved.
The best strategy for saving Medicare and Social Security is to return to a high-growth economy that’s creating jobs and strengthening government revenues through growth rather than taxation.
The time has come for House Republicans to join the American people in fighting for a balanced budget. We learned a great deal when I was speaker—and House Republicans (and rational Democrats) should use what we learned to do it again.
It’s what the American people want.
