E-Newsletter No. 12
December 2014
If not us, who? _______ If not now, when?

OK, so the November elections are over – Now what? The newly elected Senators and members of the House of Representatives take office on January 3, 2015. But before then, the existing “Continuing Resolution” that funds the federal government expires on December 11th. Therefore, sometime during the next few weeks Congress must pass an appropriations bill to keep the federal government operating. A Continuing Resolution doesn’t make any changes to the country’s spending levels, but merely continues the pre-existing appropriations at the same level as the previous fiscal year. As we noted in our May newsletter, the president’s proposed budget for the current fiscal year anticipates an additional deficit of $564 billion, which will further add to the cumulative US debt.

The next key date in 2015 is March 16th, when the country’s debt ceiling is re-instated. As we noted last February, the US Senate and House of Representatives “kicked the can down the road” to the new Congress and suspended any limitations on the US debt until March 2015. In effect, they wrote themselves a blank check that has allowed the federal government to continue borrowing money at the expense of future generations. It is our Editorial Board’s hope that the new Congress will begin to make the difficult decisions that need to be made, to begin curtailing the size and spending of the federal government and begin repaying the cumulative US debt.

US Debt Clock – – November 1st – $56,065 per citizen / December 1st – $56,266