Deficit Free Calls for a Balanced Budget Caucus

For Immediate Release Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Contact: Audrey Mullen (703) 548-1160 audrey@advocacyink.com

WASHINGTON DC: With the United States Federal debt rising above $12 trillion this week, and the U.S. Treasury auctioning off a record-setting $81 Billion in debt this week alone, a nationwide grassroots group has launched its efforts for the enactment of a Balanced Budget Constitutional Amendment, (BBA). The new non-partisan organization, Deficit Free, (www.DeficitFree.com) is calling for Congress to refer to the states a Balanced Budget Amendment by July 4, 2013 and to balance the Federal budget by July 4, 2016 – the approximate time when Social Security falls into permanent deficit.

Tim Mooney, National Coordinator of Deficit Free said,

“Our national $12 Trillion debt and annual $1 Trillion deficits are putting our economy on the brink of financial disaster. For years many have warned about the immorality of placing these bills on our children and grandchildren, but the time is now here when the debt and deficits are gravely impacting us!”

“The Social Security Trustees predict that Social Security will move from surplus to permanent deficit by 2016. If we do not balance the budget by then, we likely will not without a cataclysmic economic crisis. That’s why we’re calling for a balanced budget amendment by July 4, 2013 -- six months into the next presidential term -- and a balanced budget by July 4, 2016. It’s the best two birthday presents we could give our country and ourselves.”

As evidence of impending financial threats caused by the Federal debt and deficit, Deficit Free points to the falling U.S. dollar, record-high gold prices, along with India’s growing exchange of their foreign currency reserves into gold reserves, and China’s recent discussions about limiting its purchasing of U.S. treasuries, fearing the U.S.’s inability to pay its debt.

Deficit Free has set out a six-point plan to get to a balanced budget amendment by July 4, 2013, available at www.DeficitFree.com. The first step calls for the creation of a “Balanced Budget Congressional Member Caucus.”

Continued Mooney,

“There are over 200 Congressional Member Caucuses, from the Bourbon Caucus to the Ski & Snowboard Caucus, but no Balanced Budget Caucus. It’s time we started one to drive members of Congress to the reality that we must balance the books or face both economic ruin and a reversal of our liberties at the hands of foreign debt holders.”

The fast-rising foreign holding of U.S. Treasury debt is of particular concern. In just the last 12 months, foreign held debt has increased by 28.8%, with U.S. debt to China increasing nearly 40% in just the last year.



Said Mooney,

“Not only is our economy at risk to foreign debt holder demands, our freedoms are at risk. Major debt holders like China, Oil Exporting Countries, Caribbean Banking Centers (thought to be holding billions in narco-terrorists deposits), each could hold the U.S. financially hostage with the threat of being able to crash the dollar overnight. Increasingly, we owe them…they own us!”

DeficitFree.com is kicking off a grassroots movement to sign up voters in support of a Balanced Budget Amendment with the goal of reaching 5 million Americans, with a minimum of 5,000 in each Congressional district. It believes balancing the budget needs to be the defining issue in next year’s Congressional mid-term elections and in the next presidential campaign, with the realistic goal of passing the Balanced Budget Amendment within the first six months of the next presidential term.

In 1996, the U.S. House passed the BBA. In 1997, the U.S. Senate came within one vote of passage. Congress subsequently passed balanced budgets for four straight years. When voter pressure for the BBA waned in 2001, Congress began to spend wildly again. Last year, Germany passed a Balanced Budget Amendment. It’s an example to follow.

Concluded Mooney,

“Federal deficits of $1 Trillion or more are planned for the next 9 years. That won’t happen, because foreigners won’t loan the U.S. that amount of money. Congress is going to be forced to balance the budget either because:
1. Voters rise up from throughout America seeking to avoid a cataclysmic economic collapse, or by
2. International organizations and foreign debt-holders demand balanced budgets after the U.S. has suffered a cataclysmic economic collapse.

The choice is currently up to the voters, Congress and the President. But if we do not act quickly, with $3 billion to $4 billion being borrowed everyday, most from overseas, mostly from China, that choice will soon largely be the purview of our foreign debt holders and international organizations, not us."