HM 1583

1
House Memorial
2A memorial to the Congress of the United States urging
3Congress to balance the federal budget and hold itself to
4the same fiscal standards to which it expects its citizens
5to adhere.
6
7     WHEREAS, the Congressional Budget Resolution for fiscal
8year 2011 is pending in Congress, and
9     WHEREAS, the current national debt is approaching $12
10trillion, a cost of nearly $40,000 for each man, woman, and
11child in the United States, and is growing at an alarming rate
12with the Obama Administration predicting the addition of almost
13$5 trillion in new debt over the next 5 years, and
14     WHEREAS, the 2009 national deficit is equal to nearly 10
15percent of the country's entire economic output, a precedent not
16seen since 1950, and
17     WHEREAS, if the White House budget projections come to
18pass, the national debt will exceed the current gross domestic
19product of the United States of $16.2 trillion by the end of
202012, and
21     WHEREAS, the governance that authorized such debt and
22deficits has led to unfunded federal liabilities for Social
23Security and Medicare of more than $106 trillion as of December
242009, equal to $345,548 per American, and
25     WHEREAS, this spending has created national security
26concerns that the amount of funds paid by the Federal Government
27on debt interest alone in 2008, over $400 billion, was
28approximately 10 times the amount of funds spent on the
29Department of Homeland Security that year, and
30     WHEREAS, equally as concerning, foreign nations owned
31approximately 30 percent of the federal debt in 2009 and are,
32therefore, in a unique position of authority with respect to the
33United States, and
34     WHEREAS, the Obama Administration's projections show our
35national budget deficits not returning to sustainable levels
36over the next 10 years, rising sharply after President Obama
37leaves office, and
38     WHEREAS, credit agencies have begun to warn that the nation
39may lose its AAA credit rating because of the size of these
40federal budget deficits, deficits that could potentially
41destabilize government finances and financial markets, and
42     WHEREAS, millions of people in this country have made
43difficult choices discerning between wants and needs and have
44taken the responsible steps to curb personal spending in these
45difficult economic times, NOW, THEREFORE,
46
47Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
48
49     That the Congress of the United States is urged to balance
50the federal budget and hold itself to the same fiscal standards
51to which it expects its citizens to adhere.
52     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
53dispatched to the President of the United States, to the
54President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the
55United States House of Representatives, and to each member of
56the Florida delegation to the United States Congress.


CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.