Open Letter to President Obama on the Debt Ceiling Debate

Dear President Obama,

As you are likely well aware, you and I have many fundamental philosophical differences. I have long believed in personal liberty and economic freedom. Despite the rhetoric that you may espouse, your actions imply that you believe government can plan our lives better than we can plan them ourselves. Nearly all of the policies you have championed throughout your political career were designed to destroy individual freedom. With all due respect President, your big government philosophy is the antithesis of everything our Founding Fathers stood for.

Over the past few years, we have seen a spontaneous uprising of citizen activists protesting big government and reckless spending. My organization FreedomWorks (formerly known as Citizens for a Sound Economy) has never seen so many passionate activists in our 27 year history. As you stated in a September 2010 Rolling Stone interview, “Dick Armey and FreedomWorks, which was one of the first organizational mechanisms to bring Tea Party folks together...” We believe that the Tea Party is a direct response to the out of control spending habits of Former President George W. Bush and you.

FreedomWorks has fought your numerous power grabs at every turn. Our over one million members stood strong against the failed $814 billion “stimulus” package, your 2,801 page healthcare takeover law and the Dodd-Frank Act (also known as the “Federal Reserve Empowerment Act”). We’re exhausted from these grueling battles but we will never give up. As you already know, the Tea Party has begun to change the debate in Washington, D.C. Liberty is always worth fighting for.

The federal government has hit the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling under your watch. It’s closer to $144 trillion with unfunded liabilities factored in. You often assert that you inherited massive debt from your predecessor. Now I’ll be the first to agree that George W. Bush was a big spending Republican. Both Democrats and Republicans are responsible for our current fiscal mess. When you took office two and a half years ago, the national debt stood at $10.6 trillion. It’s now over $14.3 trillion. That’s a 35 percent increase, Mr. President.

You remain committed to raising the debt ceiling. It’s unfortunate that you have announced your intentions to veto the Cut, Cap and Balance Act if it landed on your desk. The bill would cut $111 billion from the federal budget, place enforceable caps on spending and require the passage of a Balanced Budget Amendment. It’s a step in the right direction to get spending under control. How much further are you willing to raise the debt ceiling, Mr. President? Enough is enough.

We’d like a mature discussion on how to significantly reduce the national debt. So far, you have only offered $2 billion in phony cuts. Let’s put that number into perspective. The federal government borrows $4 billion every single day and our federal budget is a whopping $3.73 trillion. Your so-called solution is to cut 5 hundredths of one percent from the budget. We must do better.

I urge you to stop your scare tactics. “Armageddon” will not occur on August 2nd. The federal government still has plenty of money to ensure that our bond holders are paid in full even if we do not raise the debt ceiling. Your threat to withhold Social Security checks if we don’t raise the ceiling is merely a dirty political trick. Social security checks will still go out as usual. The federal government is predicted to take in between $170 to $200 billion in August (we will spend closer to $300 billion) but Social Security checks only cost $50 billion. The American people deserve to hear the truth.

We need a principled leader. You were opposed to raising the debt ceiling before you were for it. On March 20, 2006, Senator Obama said “the fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure…Leadership means the ‘buck stops here.’ Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of children and grandchildren.” I agree 100 percent with your statement. Stand by your convictions, Mr. President.

Where’s your plan? A “clean” debt ceiling hike will only make our fiscal mess worse. It’s time to change Washington’s spending habits once and for all. The debt clock is ticking and we cannot afford to kick the can down the road any longer.

Sincerely,

Matt Kibbe
President and CEO
FreedomWorks