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Here is another one of my recent Op-Ed's in the Union Leader on the need to reduce the nation's debt- Charlie

When I was appointed to the House Budget Committee in 1995, then Chairman John Kasich gave me a sign for my desk that said, "It's the national debt, stupid." I still have that sign, and never has it been more relevant than it is today. I used to wonder how my children would ever be able to repay the $8900 debt owed by every American at that time. I could never have imagined that, in one year, the Pelosi-Reid-Obama regime could raise that by over $16,000 a person to the staggering $40,000 for every man, woman and child in this country today. America will not survive if this spending spree continues.

Over the last few years the debt has sky-rocketed as both the Bush and Obama administrations have overseen budgets with ballooning deficits. Indeed, President Obama has spent more in his first year as President than any other first year President in history. Democratic leaders in the Senate recently approved raising the debt ceiling to an astronomical $14.3 trillion. This increase, of almost $2 trillion, is the single largest increase of the debt limit in our nation's history.

Now, President Obama - sensing growing concern among voters - is giving lip service to the issue by proposing a three-year "freeze" on non-defense discretionary spending.

In typical Washington fashion, however, the devil is in the details. President Obama proposes this freeze not take place until October of this year. In his first year in office, non-discretionary spending sky-rocketed by 17.4%.

You can't be serious about reigning in the debt or deficit if you cram 8 years of spending into a year and half worth of time. The President's proposal is little more than an election year gimmick. A cheap political parlor trick aimed at protecting Democrats at the polls in November. It has absolutely nothing to do with actually tackling the debt and deficit problem facing this country.

Does President Obama really expect us to believe that he is serious about freezing non defense discretionary spending while, in almost the same breath, he proposes hundreds of billions in new spending this year?

The time to act is now, not October. The problem is a huge one but the solutions are as simple as they are common-sensical to the average American family charged with balancing their own check books. We need to repeal the stimulus, return unused TARP funds, enact an immediate non-defense discretionary spending freeze, eliminate duplicative and ineffective government programs, require federal agencies to return unused funds, and take a serious look at entitlement reform.

First, Congress should repeal the stimulus now, returning more than $500 billion to the treasury. President Obama's jobless jobs bill is a failure, proposing to throw more good money after reflects the blinders the Democrats are wearing.

Second, the TARP surplus should be returned to the Treasury now not frittered away on the spending binge. The TARP program was intended to be a temporary, emergence loan program - not to become yet another slush fund for special interests.

Third, we should enact a non-defense discretionary budget freeze effective immediately. If the Democratic Congress ignores this freeze and insists on passing new spending, the President should use his veto authority to reign in this fiscally irresponsible Congress.

Fourth, we need to make government work smarter and more efficient. Like most Americans, we need to find ways to make every dollar count - particularly during tough economic times. This is why we need to eliminate duplicative and ineffective government programs.

Fifth, we need the agencies that are necessary to be more efficient as well. Hundreds of millions of dollars appropriated to federal agencies goes unspent each year. Rather than returning that unnecessary money to the taxpayers, federal agencies are allowed to roll this money over from year to year.

Finally, and most politically difficult, we must take a hard look at entitlement reform. Entitlements like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, currently make up more than 50% of our federal budget. No one can seriously say they are interested in reigning in our deficits and debt without tacking entitlements.

Democrats in Washington need to know that it IS the national debt stupid and the time to act is now. We can balance our budget and begin to reduce our staggering national debt. To do so, however, will require real leadership in Washington, not the election year gimmick being put for by this administration.

Posted: April 14th, 2010 | Permalink | Send a Comment

With the Healthcare Debate still dominating the media's headlines each day, I thought I would post my Op-Ed from the Union Leader in September on common-sense reforms- Charlie

I have read with some wonder about how angry some elected officials have gotten because their constituents dare make known their views about President Obama's proposals to, for all intents and purposes, socialize health care.

As a former member of Congress, I know only too well how uncomfortable town hall meetings can be. But I also know how important it is to listen to those one represents. It strikes me that those who complain most bitterly about how fractious these meetings can be would do better to listen to what their constituents are saying.

When it comes to health care, protesters are proclaiming their version of the Hippocratic Oath: "First, do no harm." We should focus on fixing what is broken instead of on the wholesale dismantling of a system which, for all its flaws, provides the vast majority of Americans with quality care, freedom of choice and unparalleled technological advances that save lives and improve the quality of life.

The problems of having too many uninsured Americans and health care that is too expensive can be addressed through some relatively simple adjustments that would lower costs and make health care more private and more available from current providers and insurers instead of Uncle Sam.

--Disassociate health insurance from employment. There is no reason for health care premiums to be deductible by businesses, but not individuals. With universal tax deductibility, health insurers would be incentivized to sell policies to individuals as well as employers because both would enjoy equal treatment under the tax code. More competition and more choices would result in lower prices for everyone.

--Simplify insurance regulation. We should allow any plan legally approved in one state to be offered in all other states, or alternatively, allow insurers to offer health insurance plans nationwide with a federal charter. Why does a resident of Winchendon, Mass., have completely different health care coverage, rules, reimbursement levels, etc., from his neighbor in Winchester, N.H., even though they might be the same ages, have the same size families and work in the same type of business?

--Allow for large national risk pools. Health insurance should be based on the actuarial probability of loss payments, not whether someone works for a large company or government agency or lives in a certain state. The creation of large national risk pools would make issues such as community rating less problematic. This is also the way most other insurance premiums are calculated, including life, auto and homeowners insurance.

I would further address the pre-existing condition issue not with a mandate that everyone buy health insurance or pay a penalty, but by exempting pre-existing conditions from coverage for some period of time after a policy becomes effective. While not a perfect solution, it would act as a deterrent against buying into an insurance plan after a health event occurs while ensuring that individuals with chronic conditions are not denied insurance.

--Fully fund community health care centers. These centers provide health care services on a sliding scale to low-income working families, making health care affordable for the uninsured. Pay for this by capping the deductibility of so-called platinum health care plans.

--Make the establishment of Health Savings Accounts as attractive as possible. HSAs could transform the nature of health insurance by giving individuals more control over their health care dollars in the same way the creation of defined contribution retirement plans in the 1980s did to the retirement savings plans of Americans. We should increase the attractiveness of these plans by strengthening their tax preferences.

--Create a national electronic health care records system. Such a system would reduce unnecessary bureaucratic costs and errors.

--Enact meaningful tort reform. We need a medical malpractice system that streamlines the process to allow those who are injured to obtain compensation in an expedient fashion and to eliminate meritless claims. We should also limit non-economic and punitive damages.

There is nothing really ground-breaking about any of these recommendations -- and that's the beauty of them. They represent the kind of simple, pragmatic solutions to the challenges facing our health care system that Americans are hungry for. If enacted as a package, they would have the immediate effect of real reform and transformation. If you only take the time to listen, you'll find that that's the kind of change Americans can believe in.

Posted: April 14th, 2010 | Permalink | Send a Comment