Texas Congressman Kevin Brady Proposes Lawmakers in Denial about America’s Debt
Kicking off his nationally syndicated “Neal Asbury’s Truth for America Show” on WZAB-AM, Neal Asbury opened the show by urging his listeners to get involved in the discussion of America’s widening debt, which has become a drag on the country and its standing around the world.
“When the Chinese have declared that the dollar is the past and the Yuan is the future, it’s a shot across our bow. We have to get our economic house in order. It impacts our security and our pride. History tells us that empires fail when they can no longer carry their debt service,” warned Asbury.
Returning to the show as a guest was Congressman Kevin Brady (R-TX) who represents the 8th District of Texas. A pro-family, pro-small business conservative, Congressman Brady’s strong belief in free enterprise guides him as the Vice Chairman of the Joint Economic Committee and the Chairman of the House subcommittee on Trade. A Deputy Whip for the GOP Leadership team, he is a senior member of the House Ways & Means Committee.
Congressman Brady contends that there are too many lawmakers in denial about the nation’s debt and need to get a handle on our response. He reminded listeners that the private sector creates jobs, not the government. He added that as government grows, jobs shrink on Main Street.
“Due to uncertainty in the private sector, we’ve got two billion dollars sitting on the sidelines that need to flow back into the economy. The president is not taking a leadership position on debt reduction. We simply can’t wait to act to preserve Medicare and social security. Some changes have to be made, that might include pushing retirement until the age of 70 to preserve money. It also might mean allowing younger workers to invest in an IRA-type program that creates their own retirement fund in a pool, so they don’t have to rely on governmental resources. Social security could be tied to the inflation rate, not based on salary,” suggested Congressman Brady.
Congressman Brady thinks the next five years will be crucial in staving off a true economic crisis. “The solution is not taxing the rich. We could double the taxes of every person in America and we’d still be running a deficit.”
He thinks that the GOP needs to stand firm on reducing spending. He doesn’t want to see a repeat of the healthcare debate when the administration rammed through Obama Care despite the fact that 60 percent of Americans didn’t want it. He predicted that the GOP will go through one more round of short-term spending cuts to prevent a governmental shutdown, but a showdown over the entire budget is coming.
“We need $61 billion in appropriations cuts, but the administration is proposing just $6 billion. That’s not enough. This administration is not taking these spending cuts seriously. We’re in deep trouble on our entitlement spending,” said Congressman Brady.
Turning to the revolt in Libya, Congressman Brady thinks that U.S. needs to take a cautionary approach to establishing a no-fly zone. He doesn’t want to see the U.S. get embroiled in another conflict that results in the U.S. staying behind in a country for rebuilding. If NATO plays an active role, he would better about America contributing military support.
Recognizing Congressman Brady’s role as Chairman of the House subcommittee on Trade, Neal opened a discussion on the status of the pending free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea. Congressman Brady noted that the time is right for forcing the White House to ratify all three free trade agreements at the same time.
“It’s shameful that we haven’t gotten these agreements passed with these friendly trading partners. We want to submit the three trade agreements this summer and we think that they will pass. More than $13 billion in new exports sales and new jobs are at stake,” concluded Congressman Brady.
Neal Asbury Truth for America tackles free trade and enterprise issues every Friday from 5:00 PM until 6:00 PM on WZAB-AM 880 and is co-hosted by Richard Roffman, a veteran 30-year publisher with extensive domestic and international experience. The show is streamed live on line at WWW.880THEBIZ.COM <http://www.880thebiz.com/> , which is affiliated with Bloomberg Radio and CNBC, and can be heard nationally on 920-WGKA (Atlanta); KSEV (Houston); 1500 AM (Washington D.C.); 1220-KDOW (San Francisco); and 1300-KKOL (Seattle).