Congressman Ron Klein

February 25, 2010

Congressman Ron Klein
800 East Las Olas Boulevard
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33301

RE: It’s never too late – A Constituent comments on your 11th hour conversion to fiscal sanity as expressed in your Op-Ed in this morning’s Sun-Sentinel.

Congressman Klein,

Since this is the holy season of Lent it is well to remember that “while the light is left to burn the vilest sinner may yet return”.

The problem with your Op-Ed is that it could have been written by an aging hooker who knows that gravity and a rapidly turning calendar are her enemies. Her only salvation is to become chaste, like a born again virgin.

Three points:

#1 – You mention budget surpluses in the glorious Clinton years as if they really existed. You probably believe in the Easter bunny and the tooth fairy. The Federal budget makes no distinction between capitol items and expense items. That results in an aircraft carrier and “Midnight Basketball” being treated the same.

There is a word for that.

Madness.

Further, it is a matter of public record – that means you can look it up – that while those “budget surpluses” were being proclaimed throughout the land the Federal debt never went down by as much as penny. Never. What happened to those “surpluses”? The Federal debt continued to grow. The amount spent in the next year never went down. Maybe they are in the legendary “lock box’, the one that mere mortals can never see. Do you think that the election of a Republican House in 1994 had anything to do with those “surpluses”?

#2 – You say that you will make Scrooge look like Mother Teresa when you cut government programs. The problem with that is that you are a modern American Liberal. As such, you and your constituency have one fixed star in your ideological makeup. “Any public policy that robs Peter to pay Paul will have Paul’s support”. Further, you believe that, despite History, a country can tax itself to prosperity.

There is a word for that.

Lunacy.
#3 – You say that you will introduce legislation “that mandates we balance the budget”. There will be a fifth gospel before that happens. My Uncle Adam once said that “what is prudent in running the affairs of a household can scarce be folly in running the affairs of an empire”.

I suggest you introduce legislation to get the Federal budget to recognize contingent liabilities. Those are the amounts of money that we know will be due at a date certain. It is not unusual for a parent to begin a college fund when the baby is born. We have not been doing that.

Then you can get Congress to stop the budgetary slight of hand that transfers all the money paid into Social Security and Medicare directly into the operating account of the Federal government. Once a year Uncle Sam issues a chit, a marker, an IOU to the Social Security administration for the amount filched. This has been done since 1964. I think they may be in the legendary “lock box”. The best example is the immortal Wimpy, Popeye’s friend. “I will gladly pay you on Thursday for a hamburger that I eat on Monday.” Congress is like Wimpy on nuclear steroids. If a private company were to do that the IRS would drag the owners out of their HQ in chains. May be we should turn them loose on Congress.

My suggestions for cutting the budget are direct and simple.

The Department of Agriculture has never grown a single ear of corn or a bushel of wheat. The Department of Energy has never cut a ton of coal. We have had the Department of Education for more than 30 years. Johnny still can’t read. What exactly doe the Department of Transportation do? It’s time for them to go.

The Constitution mandates that all revenue bills originate in the House. How many House budget resolutions have you voted against? How many final House/Senate budget acts have you voted against? It’s tough being chaste, isn’t it?

What do you think we should call the Fifth Gospel? We live in a diverse culture. How about the Book of Murray? How about the Book of Jose? How about the Book of Ebenezer?

In the end debits always equal credits. It is a lesson that the Gods of the Copybook Ledgers know by heart. It is a lesson that we may have to learn the hard way.



Kevin Smith