Letter to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner

Letter

Senator Ron Johnson (WI) today sent the attached letter to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. Secretary Geithner finally responded to Johnson after five weeks yesterday, regarding the need for a contingency plan in case Congress does not raise the debt ceiling.

Dear Secretary Geithner,

Thank you for your response to the 23 members of the U.S. Senate that signed my letter dater May 25th. I'm just a manufacturer and a business guy from Oshkosh, Wisconsin. But unlike you, I won't take five weeks or use several pages of quotes from other people to respond.

According to the President's own budget, the U.S. Treasury will receive $2.6 trillion in revenue in fiscal year 2012, which starts this October 1st. That is enough money to service our debt, cover 100 percent of Social Security payment, and still leave $1.6 trillion for essential defense, security, health, and safety spending. Only one person has the power to make sure those priorities are met with available revenue - the President of the United States. It is incredibly reckless and highly irresponsible for President Obama and you to approach your debt ceiling deadline without having put spending priorities in place, or developed a backup plan in case the debt ceiling is not raised by your date.

Instead of scaring the American people, you should be assuring seniors that their Social Security payments will continue, assuring the troops they will still get paid and supplied, assuring the world markets we will honor our debts, and prioritizing spending utilizing the more than $1 trillion of remaining revenue to ensure that essential services are continued. I am willing to work with you to ensure the money will be there, but we all realize it will be the President who actually sets the spending priorities.

Instead of establishing priorities, I suppose President Obama could make it a very painful experience for the American people. But that would be his choice - and it is completely unnecessary. If seniors don't get their Social Security checks, or one debt service payment is missed, or our soldiers don't get paid, it will be President Obama's fault and his fault alone.

Regarding the federal budget, the debt ceiling and our national economic woes, President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Reid, and you have preferred to play a game of political chicken, criticizing serious proposals without offering any serious proposals of your own. This is business as usual in Washington, and it is bankrupting America.

After 18 months in office, the President has finally personally engaged in the process; the so-called Biden negotiations have failed; and even President Obama has agreed that infrastructure projects for his $787 billion stimulus weren't very "shovel ready" after all.

In the U.S. Senate, Majority Leader Reid has failed to pass a budget in over two years, and there is no budget to mark up or debate in the Budget Committee. Only six pieces of legislation that have passed by vote in the Senate this year have become law, and three of those were continuing resolutions that were required because Democrats failed to pass a budget last year when they controlled Congress.

The President's budget was so unserious that not one Senate Democrat voted for it, and it was rejected 0-97 - a stunning repudiation of his leadership. It does not take a rocket scientist to see that the Democratic leadership in Washington is fiddling while our nation hurtles towards bankruptcy.

Mr Secretary, I am willing to work in good faith with anyone who is serious about resolving our financial and economic crisis. But the efforts of this Administration and the Democratic leadership in the Senate have fallen well short of serious, and that includes your response to my May 25th letter.

Mr. Secretary, for the sake of our nation, I implore you, President Obama, and Senate Majority Leader Reid to finally get serious, before it really is too late.

Sincerely,

Ron Johnson

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