>LINKER: MORE TAXES WON’T FIX GOVERNMENT’S SPENDING PROBLEM,
(Ridgewood, NJ): On Tuesday, conservative Republican U.S. Senate candidate from New Jersey Ian Linker voiced his concern that Congress will miss its opportunity to fundamentally change the way Washington spends taxpayer money because Democrats insist that an agreement to raise the statutory debt limit must include a trillion dollars of new taxes.
Linker said, “Congress must change the way it spends our money or America will soon buckle under the weight of an unsustainable debt. The government cannot continue to write blank checks. We need to pass a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution that caps spending and we need to pay down this debt. We can no longer afford to summarily raise the statutory debt limit without real spending reform. Our nation’s debt has increased by almost 50% since President Obama took office and we have incurred more debt since Bob Menendez joined the U.S. Senate in 2006 than we had in the preceding 230 years of our nation’s history. When an individual incurs debt the way our government incurs debt, banks will eventually turn off the credit spigot. Only Congress has the power to turn off the government’s spigot and now is the time to close it off. Don’t be fooled by Democrats shouts of shared sacrifice and equitable contribution. We are not in this predicament because we tax too little and we will not solve this problem with higher taxes. We are in this mess because we spend too much.”
Linker explained, “Putting aside that American tax policy is not responsible for our mountain of debt, raising taxes in a fragile economy is just bad economic policy. With millions out of work and the economy stagnating, raising taxes will cause further joblessness and will only add further downward pressure on an economy barely growing at 1.9% per year.”
Linker added, “This Congress has an historic opportunity to solve the fiscal mess that no one person and no one political party is responsible for causing, but solve it they must.”
