For Immediate Release



Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) announced a budget deal

on Dec. 10 that keeps spending high.

Photo by Gage Skidmore (CC BY-SA 2.0)

President Barack Obama and the Democrats and Republicans in Congress, reeling from low voter-approval ratings, are anxious to cut a budget deal that takes the heat off of both parties yet keeps their special interest masters content.

“While people are busy preparing for the holidays, now’s a great time, they figure, to jam more government overspending and tax increases on the American people, just as they did earlier this year,” said Geoffrey J. Neale, chair of the Libertarian Party.

Last January — while Americans were watching New Year’s Day parades, cheering for football teams, and recovering from hangovers — Congress passed a bill to hike the Social Security payroll tax, costing the average American taxpayer $800 every year. In addition, they hiked taxes on estates, incomes, health care, and businesses.

Now leading Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. House, with nods from Senate leaders and the president, have cut a tentative deal to:

continue to add nearly $1 trillion yearly to the $17.2 trillion national debt;

lock in funding for job-killing, life-threatening Obamacare;

add another $60 billion in new federal spending for special interests, including defense contractors and federal government retirees;

eliminate much of their celebrated “sequester,” a pathetically small reduction in future government overspending;

and raise taxes, including an increase in TSA fees that they will tack onto the cost of airline tickets.

“Why not grab every tax dollar they can, they figure, and nail down a budget during the holidays that will avoid the backlash of a possible government ‘shutdown’ in January?” Neale asked.

“Why not pass a two-year — rather than a one-year — budget deal, Democrats and Republicans figure, so they don’t have to deal with prickly budget negotiations next fall, right before many of them are up for reelection?” he continued.

High government overspending is killing the economy, killing jobs, and devaluing the dollar — along with the savings and earnings of every American.

High taxes, including the hidden tax of inflation that results from Democrats’ and Republicans’ deficit spending, is depleting Americans’ wealth and is sending more American jobs overseas.

Republicans who pretend to oppose Obamacare are letting it fly, refusing to defund it. If left unchecked, Obamacare will force more small businesses to close; bar Americans from needed health care, leaving diseases untreated; raise health insurance premiums; and raise out-of-pocket costs. The unaffordable burdens of Obamacare may well deal the final, fatal blow to America’s status as the world’s leading economy.

“An outrage” does not begin to describe the level of wanton, self-serving, fiscally irresponsible, and heartless behavior of today’s Democratic and Republican politicians in Congress,” Neale said. “There is only one way to stop them from destroying the economy: Vote Libertarian.”