Greece should serve as a wake-up call

Just last week, a financial shock wave swept across Europe as Greece narrowly averted economic collapse by securing its second major bailout in as many years.

While markets everywhere breathed a sigh of relief that the $172 billion rescue package temporarily saved Greece from insolvency, the forecast for continued stability remains in doubt.

Could what’s happening in Greece actually happen here in America? To some extent, it already has. Greece and the United States are two of the seven countries in the world with a national debt that exceeds total economic output.

Among advanced economies, the United States and Greece join Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan and Portugal on the list of nations whose debt is greater than their gross domestic product (GDP). The last time America’s debt topped the size of its overall economy was in 1947, due to the costs incurred in World War II. Today there is no excuse for spending more than we’re taking in. Frankly, it’s a recipe for disaster.

Both parties are to blame for the reckless spending over the past decade that has placed us on this shortlist of debt-riddled nations.

And it’s only going to get worse in the short term. The president’s new budget proposal, released this month, projects a deficit for this year of $1.33 trillion — marking four consecutive years of trillion-dollar-plus deficits. It also includes trillions of dollars in new government spending over the next decade.

For too long, Republicans and Democrats in Washington have turned a blind eye to our country's financial mess. Doing nothing and repeating the mistakes of the past defies common sense if we’re ever to reduce the deficit, balance the budget and get Americans back to work.

For this reason, I've introduced my own pro-growth plan to get America working again. It contains some of the following provisions:

· Broadly restructure our corporate tax system in order to encourage businesses to keep their jobs in America, and bring new facilities and jobs here by making U.S. companies more globally competitive.
· Abolish burdensome government regulations on employers that drive costs up while keeping job growth down. We don’t need to make it any harder than it already is for a business to grow and expand.
· Adopt a constitutional amendment requiring the federal government to balance its budget. It’s the first bill I introduced as a member of Congress.
· Pass far-reaching legal reform that removes frivolous lawsuits from our court system.

As a successful businessman who created thousands of jobs before coming to Congress, I know what it takes to create new opportunity, manage payrolls and exercise the fiscal discipline that keeps a business moving forward.

What is essential is that both parties and the president work together and make the tough choices necessary to tackle America’s debt crisis and grow the economy.

If we want to avoid the fate of Greece, we need to act today.


Buchanan is a member of the House Ways and Means Committee.

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