GOP Looking Shaky On Debt Reduction

John Stossel has a good piece today about our debt crisis and how we will, or will not, address it. First, realize that, as bad as our debt situation is, we CAN get out of it.
http://townhall.com/columnists/JohnStossel/2011/01/12/same_as_the_old_boss

Are we doomed? Not necessarily. Economist David R. Henderson points out that our neighbors to the north faced a similar crisis. In 1994, the debt that Canada owed to investors was 67 percent of GDP. Today, it's less than 30 percent.

What did Canada do? It cut spending from 17.5 percent of GDP to 11.3 percent.

This wasn't merely a cut in the growth of spending, a favorite trick of congressional committees. These were actual reductions in absolute spending.

"If a cabinet minister wanted a smaller cut in one program, he had to come up with a bigger cut in another program," writes Henderson in "Canada's Budget Triumph," published by the Mercatus Center. All but one of Canada's 22 federal departments experienced real cuts in spending. While Canada raised taxes slightly, spending was cut six to seven times more.

These supposedly painful cuts didn't cause terrible pain. In fact, there was much more gain than pain. Unemployment dropped, the economy boomed, and the Canadian dollar -- then worth about 71 cents U.S. -- today is about equal to the American dollar.
If Canada can do it, we can, too.

As you can see, it's possible to enact drastic spending cuts without destroying the economy. Yes, I know what the liberals in Congress and in the media say, but it's a lie. Smaller government budgets, with their attendant lower taxes and lower borrowing, are GOOD for the economy!

So we CAN get out of this. WILL we?

But the signs aren't good. New Speaker John Boehner, leader of the Republicans who now control the House, says he wants to cut spending. When he was sworn in last week, he declared: "Our spending has caught up with us. ... No longer can we kick the can down the road."

But when NBC anchorman Brian Williams asked him to name a program "we could do without," he said, "I don't think I have one off the top of my head."

Give me a break! You mean to tell me the Republican leader in the House doesn't already know what he wants to cut? I don't know which is worse -- that he doesn't have a list or that he won't talk about it in public.

I've been saying this for quite a while. Those of you who are expecting the new GOP majority in the House to be different from the old are probably going to be severely disappointed. They don't WANT to reduce spending... that reduces their own power, too.

So, where's the new third party we desperately need?