News New Mexico: Bingaman's Non-Response to Debt Crisis

Jeff Bingaman

Newsnm note - (Spence) Recently I contacted Senator Jeff Bingaman via email and asked him to please support Representative Paul Ryan's "Path to Prosperity," which passed in the U.S. House last Friday. Below is Bingaman's canned response. Note that it does not contain one single suggestion for cutting spending. What this communication does contain are silly platitudes which when taken collectively amount to setting everything OFF LIMITS......everything except all taxpayers sending more money to Washington. Bingaman does take the time to sneak in some veiled criticism of Ryan's plan, which just happens to be the only responsible federal budget proposal most observers have seen in their entire adult lives. Sadly, this amounts to a standard fare response out of Washington D.C. from our five-term Senator. After reading this form letter one can see how Bingaman might have been part of the borrowing problem all along. Perhaps it is a good time to retire.
Dear Friend, Thank you for contacting me regarding our nation's debt. I appreciate your taking the time to write. Our national debt is rapidly climbing and threatens American prosperity. I believe that we must get serious about addressing the debt so that our country can continue to grow and provide essential services. Moving forward, this means we must consider a wide-range of policies to restore fiscal security. Congress will need to work on a bipartisan basis to make tough decisions both to control spending and to increase revenues, and neither has ever been an easy task. I agree that some level of spending cuts are necessary.

In this regard, Congress has taken crucial steps, including savings from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Fiscal Year 2011 Continuing Resolution (CR), which reduces spending by about $38 billion compared to the budget in FY2010. If we are serious about restoring fiscal security, however, we must now focus on more than just the non-security discretionary accounts, which amount to about 12 cents of every dollar spent by Washington. A more comprehensive approach will have to look at entitlement programs, security programs, and revenue increases to balance the budget. At the same time, we must continue to invest in programs that are critical to maintaining our economic recovery and strengthening our economy going forward. The creation of our nation's debt was a bipartisan effort and as such requires a bipartisan solution. Whether or not we agree with the obligations imposed upon our nation during times when both parties controlled different branches of government, we must agree that addressing our fiscal challenges is in the best interest of the nation.

Recently, President Obama revealed his proposal for reducing the deficit and encouraging economic growth. It stands in sharp contrast to other deficit reduction plans that place too much of the burden on the middle class and seniors. I applaud the President's leadership in acknowledging that we cannot fix our deficit problems with budget cuts alone. I also agree that whatever steps we take must protect investments that we need to make in education and innovation so that our economy can continue to grow. Please be assured that throughout this discussion, I will carefully examine every proposal and work to ensure that important federal programs, including Social Security and Medicare, remain strong. Again, thank you for writing. I hope you will continue to keep me informed of issues of importance to you and your community.