Facing the fiscal cliff

It’s hard to watch the news lately without hearing about the “fiscal cliff” awaiting Americans early next year — more than $500 billion in automatic spending cuts, tax increases and other fiscal changes set to kick in starting in January.

These questions, coupled with the paralyzing federal budget deficit and national debt, will have a significant impact on Delawareans.

Although I’ve worked on deficit reduction consistently during my two years in the Senate, my staff and I have invested additional time and energy these last few months preparing for the immediate economic choices required by the events of the fiscal cliff. Just as we do with our legislative briefing emails, I wanted you to have access to some of the same background and analysis that I do.

We’ve put together a white paper on the fiscal cliff — a primer on the economic issues Congress and the President are now working to confront — to give you a better idea of what to expect.

Click here for your copy of the white paper and to share your opinion on the fiscal cliff.              

As it stands now, our budget deficit and national debt are simply unsustainable. A $1.3 trillion deficit and $16.3 trillion debt are unacceptable. This level of debt hurts our nation’s competitiveness, causes interest rates to rise over the long term and crowds out critical investments in our country’s future.

Congress should get a big, bipartisan deal done now to reduce our deficit and avert the very significant impact of the fiscal cliff, rather than waiting until next year.

It seems like an easy choice to simply kick the can down the road again, but the reality is that our country will need to make an array of tough decisions about our competing economic priorities over the next few months – priorities like keeping taxes low, investing in critical services, reducing our unsustainable annual deficits and stabilizing our debt.

I hope you’ll download my new white paper and share your opinion on the fiscal cliff.

There is no doubt that we can keep our nation moving forward, but we’ll have to work together to do it. Balance is the only responsible solution.

Best –
Chris Coons
U.S. Senator

Budget Analysis: Deficit reduction

President Obama’s budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year (FY13) hit Capitol Hill this week, hot off the presses. Senator Coons reviewed the blueprint and praised it for responsibly reducing our country’s dangerous deficits while still investing in America’s long-term competitiveness.

After digesting the budget proposal’s many charts and numbers, our team has identified a few key highlights for Delaware, starting with responsible deficit reduction.

President Obama’s budget plan would save more than $4 trillion over 10 years, stabilizing public debt at 76.5% of GDP by 2022, with deficits declining to an average of 3% of GDP per year. 

This blueprint reduces the deficit in four primary ways:

• Winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nearly $850 billion is saved in the Overseas Contingency Operations accounts, which primarily relates to war funding.
• Returning to Clinton-era tax levels on the wealthiest Americans.  Some $206 billion is saved by ending the George W. Bush-era tax cuts for families making over $250,000 a year.
• Reforming entitlement programs. The budget includes close to $600 billion in savings on health and other mandatory spending programs.
• Staying within Congressional budget limits. The President continues the savings plan established by Congress in the Budget Control Act, passed last year, which saves over $1 trillion through caps on discretionary spending.

Video: Senators Coons and Kirk debate a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution

U.S. Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) spoke on the Senate floor on Wednesday to debate amending the Constitution to require the federal government to balance its budget.

Senator Coons urges supercommittee to “go big” on deficit reduction

Senator Coons joined more than 40 of his colleagues from both the Senate and the House at a bipartisan press conference today urging the 12-member debt-reduction super committee to “go big” in recommending ways to reduce our annual deficits and national debt.

The committee, consisting of Republicans and Democrats from both chambers of Congress, is working to develop a plan by November 23, 2011 to save at least $1.2 trillion over a 10-year period.

Deficit and debt reduction has been a top priority for Chris, who is also a member of the Senate Budget Committee.

Earlier this month, Chris joined 44 of his Senate colleagues on a letter to the super committee members urging for at least $4 trillion in savings.

Click here to learn more about Chris’ work on the Budget Committee. 

Video: Chris discusses debt ceiling deal on CNBC

Senator Coons appeared on CNBC Monday afternoon to discuss the proposed deal to raise the nation's debt ceiling and avert a default crisis that would have devastating impacts on Americans. He was joined by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) in the interview. 

Video: Chris analyzes Boehner decision to move away from middle

Chris was on MSNBC Friday afternoon talking with Martin Bashir about Speaker Boehner's decision to change his debt-ceiling bill in a way that would make a potential compromise even less likely.

Watch video of his interview below:

Graphic: The drivers of our debt

The White House has developed a fascinating infographic that looks at the actual drivers of our nation's staggering debt. It reveals that the policies of the previous administration resulted in $7 trillion in new debt, whereas the policies of the current administration have resulted in $1.4 trillion in new debt.

The impact of default

Our nation is just over six days from the most predictable economic crisis it has ever experienced.

The debate over whether to raise the debt ceiling has been both frustrating and dangerous. On August 2nd, the United States will hit what’s known as the ‘debt ceiling,’ preventing our nation from borrowing the money it needs to meet its obligations.

Failing to raise the ceiling doesn’t cut up the President’s credit cards or deny Congress a blank check. It’s actually much more like our nation outright refusing to pay its mortgage.

The implications for a family that defaults on its mortgage are extensive and last for years. Economists agree that the impacts on a nation that defaults on its debt would be catastrophic and last for generations. That's why making sure America does not default on its mortgage has been one of my top priorities since coming to Washington.

I’m eager to hear what you think about this situation. Please click here to share your opinion on the default crisis.

As you may have seen in the news, Washington is at an impasse about the way forward.

The amendment being offered by Senator Reid and endorsed by President Obama is not ideal, but it’s what we need to avert the full onset of economic catastrophe. The plan produces $2.7 trillion in savings through a blend of discretionary spending cuts to which the other party has already agreed. It does not touch Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security and it does not increase revenue or reform our tax system.

This approach is not ideal, but we’ve been left with little choice. We simply cannot afford for America to default on its mortgage.

All Americans would feel the impact of a default. If the government isn't able to meet the obligations to which it has already committed, the Treasury Department could be faced with brutal choices about what to pay and what not to pay. Do we pay for Social Security but shut down the FBI? Do we pay for Medicare but stop food inspections?

Increased interest rates on mortgages, student loans, car loans and credit cards will hit nearly every American. Economists are predicting job losses of more than 600,000 if we default, and it's going to be harder than ever for small businesses to access the capital they need.

By defaulting, we will have communicated to the world in no uncertain terms that the United States is no longer the safest investment of its money.

This is an important issue, and I’m eager to hear what you think. Please click here to share your opinion on the default crisis.

We cannot afford for America to become a bad investment. As we close in on the August 2nd deadline, I will continue to work make sure it never does.

Default

Our nation is just over six days from the most predictable economic crisis it has ever experienced.

The debate over whether to raise the debt ceiling has been both frustrating and dangerous. On August 2nd, the United States will hit what’s known as the ‘debt ceiling,’ preventing our nation from borrowing the money it needs to meet its obligations.

Failing to raise the ceiling doesn’t cut up the President’s credit cards or deny Congress a blank check. It’s actually much more like our nation outright refusing to pay its mortgage.

The implications for a family that defaults on its mortgage are extensive and last for years. Economists agree that the impacts on a nation that defaults on its debt would be catastrophic and last for generations. That's why making sure America does not default on its mortgage has been one of my top priorities since coming to Washington.

As you may have seen in the news, Washington is at an impasse about the way forward.

The amendment being offered by Senator Reid and endorsed by President Obama is not ideal, but it’s what we need to avert the full onset of economic catastrophe. The plan produces $2.7 trillion in savings through a blend of discretionary spending cuts to which the other party has already agreed. It does not touch Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security and it does not increase revenue or reform our tax system.

This approach is not ideal, but we’ve been left with little choice. We simply cannot afford for America to default on its mortgage.

All Americans would feel the impact of a default. If the government isn't able to meet the obligations to which it has already committed, the Treasury Department could be faced with brutal choices about what to pay and what not to pay. Do we pay for Social Security but shut down the FBI? Do we pay for Medicare but stop food inspections?

Increased interest rates on mortgages, student loans, car loans and credit cards will hit nearly every American. Economists are predicting job losses of more than 600,000 if we default, and it's going to be harder than ever for small businesses to access the capital they need.

By defaulting, we will have communicated to the world in no uncertain terms that the United States is no longer the safest investment of its money.

We cannot afford for America to become a bad investment. As we close in on the August 2nd deadline, I will continue to work make sure it never does.

Video: Chris offers support for plan to avert default crisis

Chris was on MSNBC Monday afternoon talking with Dylan Ratigan about the plan for averting the default crisis offered Monday by Senate Democrats.

Though the Senator believes it’s unfortunate that Congress wasn't able to get the bigger, $4 trillion deal that he, the President, Senate Democrats and at least a dozen Senate Republicans were looking to reach, he believes we have to move forward and focus on something that can succeed in averting this default crisis. Senator Reid’s plan does that.

Watch video of his interview below: