We Must Protect the American Dream

Reckless spending from both Democrats and Republicans has brought the American economy to its knees.

The United States is heading toward an economic cliff, and if we don’t immediately change course our nation will suffer a financial collapse far greater than what we’ve seen across Europe.

America borrows almost 40 cents of every dollar it spends; we have more than 100 percent debt to GDP; and the Federal Government accounts for 24 percent of our nation’s Gross Domestic Product.

Our economic growth rate is an anemic two percent—which is just half the level of most post-recession recoveries, and the unemployment rate sits at 8.2 percent. Worse yet, the real unemployment rate (U-6 rate) is a staggering 14.8 percent.

Now, the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that our Debt will be double our GDP by 2037 (CBO, 6/2012). Simply put, the path we are on is unsustainable.

Career politicians from both parties—who care more about getting reelected than they do securing the future of our nation—got us into this mess, and now it is time to make the difficult and responsible decisions.

That is why this week I introduced my eight-point “Protecting the American Dream” economic plan.

I sincerely believe that we can create jobs and get our economy back on track by: defeating the debt and balancing the budget; reforming our broken tax code; deregulating our economy; and reforming and auditing the Federal Reserve.

In addition, we need to reform the Financial Services Industry by ending “too big to fail;” repeal and replace ObamaCare with free-market solutions; achieve real energy independence; and end cronyism in our nation’s capitol. 

Time is running out—but if we act now, we can still right America’s financial ship.

Getting our nation’s fiscal house in order is not going to be easy. It will require shared sacrifice and the courage to make the tough decisions that are necessary to put us back on track.

If we are going to succeed in protecting the American Dream for our children and grandchildren, we must all band together to do what’s right for the future of our nation.