An American Promise
● A Balanced-Budget Amendment to the Constitution, with appropriate exceptions for times of war and recession.
● A line-item veto, to give the President a fighting chance to eliminate pork and earmarks.
● A limitation on federal spending, to 20% of GDP.-
*** About We Elected You ***
Have Your Say!
- John Lumbard on Problems With a Balanced Budget Amendment?
- Chris Curley on Problems With a Balanced Budget Amendment?
- John Lumbard on How to Fix the Health Care Mess
- Did Government Agencies “Raid” Social Security “Coffers”? « Joejolly’s Weblog on “The Debt The Government Owes Itself For Raiding Social Security”
- John Lumbard on The Antidote
- Gen Y on The Keepers of the Flame
- Chuck Bailey on Amendment Filed. Call Your Congressman!
- Phoebe Addington on Party On!
- FaGaurlwal on Incentives Rule!
- James Schaefer on The ENTIRE Government Runs on Borrowed Money
Topics
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American Promise Archive
20 by ’20: A Limit on Federal Spending
By Dennis Canfield.
“… It's time to try something new.” - President Barack Obama, introducing his $3.8 trillion budget for 2011---which proposes that our federal government spend 25 cents of every dollar earned by every American, rich and poor alike. This is new. Before World War II, our government typically spent 10% less...
Read More An American Promise
Charles Peter Carruthers, a native of Dumfries, Scotland, launched and managed the San Francisco office of Price Waterhouse almost a century ago. He left to his heirs the following "10 Points" of good government and fiscal responsibility:
1. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
2. You cannot strengthen the weak by...
Read More American Promise
We borrowed the name American Promise from Dodge Morgan of Snow Island, Maine, who sailed a boat of that name around the world, non-stop, alone, in 1985. When we wrote to ask his permission he didn't respond for a few months, and then replied "you have probably gone well beyond the timing of this...
Read More Term Limits? Again?
By John Lumbard.
It's said that fish and guests begin to stink after 3 days or so. Apparently the American public now believes, by overwhelming margins (74% of Democrats and 84% of Republicans), that even competent congressmen begin to stink after a while. Term limits are back in favor, presumably because...
Read More Americans For A Balanced Budget Amendment
Alan Parks is the founder of Americans For A Balanced Budget Amendment (http://www.balanceourbudget.com/), which collects signatures and builds support for the constitutional amendment that came within one vote of passing the Congress back in the mid 1990s. It can be done.
Alan tells us that he commissioned a survey, with dollars from his own pocket,...
Read More How ’bout a Little Optimism? The American Promise.
By John Lumbard.
Investors are running scared right now, fearful that a slowdown in our economy means that we're headed back into a double-dip recession. Stop worrying and enjoy a double dip in the ocean (a balmy 66 degrees at the New Hampshire shore today) or two scoops of ice cream at Annabelle's here...
Read More The Safe Withdrawal Rate
By John Lumbard.
The “safe withdrawal rate” is the amount of cash a retired person can withdraw from an IRA or other investment account without someday running out of money. It’s not an easy figure to calculate, because you need to project your investment returns and your cost of living...
Read More Sustainable Government
By James Schaefer.
In a recent Opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal (Tax Aversion Syndrome and Our Deficit Future), Peter G. Peterson writes about Congressional Budget Office projections that show the public debt rising from its current 60% of GDP to 233% in 30 years, and 500% in 50...
Read More