ATLANTA, GA, October 13, 2020 /Neptune100/ — Allen Buckley, a fiscal conservative independent candidate in the special election race for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Kelly Loeffler, says the three major candidates in the race, Kelly Loeffler, Doug Collins and Raphael Warnock, would vote to cause the national debt to explode.
Kelly Loeffler and Doug Collins claim complete loyalty to President Donald Trump. Loeffler claims a voting record that is 100 percent in accord with Mr. Trump’s agenda. Her campaign has recently run commercials claiming she is more conservative than Atilla the Hun.
Current tax proposals of Mr. Trump include completely eliminating the Social Security and Medicare taxes—that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said are expected to produce 40 percent of federal revenue for 2020, cutting the highest potential capital gains tax rate, creating new tax cuts to boost take-home pay, expanding Opportunity Zones, and tax credits and 100 percent expensing for companies that cause jobs to return to the U.S. Mr. Trump’s record with respect to spending is one of only increases. The 2017 tax law changes enacted by Republicans are expected to reduce federal revenue by $1.5 trillion over a decade.
Mr. Warnock does not talk about financial issues. On his campaign website, he discusses no issues whatsoever. If elected, he would be a junior senator in the Democratic Party. As such, he would need to go along to get along. The Democratic Party has announced plans to increase taxes on the wealthy and corporations, while drastically increasing spending on all sorts of programs, including expanded healthcare and some sort of green new deal. Both major parties are already talking about making many of the tax cuts from the 2017 tax act permanent. So, the Democrats will raise more revenue than the Republicans, but increase spending much more than they will increase taxes.
On October 7, 2020, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) said: “Under our central estimate, we find President Trump’s campaign plan would increase the debt by $4.95 trillion over ten years and former Vice President Biden’s plan would increase the debt by $5.60 trillion. Debt would rise from 98 percent of GDP today to 125 percent by 2030 under President Trump and 128 percent under Vice President Biden, compared to 109 percent under current law.” The costs exclude spending to address the current pandemic and economic crisis.
An October 5, 2020 opinion by Maya MacGuiness in The Washington Post noted that in 2016 the CRFB estimated a Trump presidency would increase the national debt by $4.6 trillion more than what it would otherwise increase by. The opinion states CRFB came reasonably close on the policy projections, noting Trump approved “a whopping $3.9 trillion in borrowing for new tax cuts and spending between 2017 and 2026.”It noted that Trump promised (in 2016) to reduce domestic spending by $750 billion over 10 years and instead increased it by $700 billion. It also said: “All told, every major area of the government has grown significantly under the Trump Administration.”
The national debt now exceeds $27 trillion. It is a major problem because in 2007, when total debt was less than $9 trillion, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said: “GAO’s current long-term simulations continue to show ever larger deficits resulting in a federal debt burden that ultimately spirals out of control.” Annual revenue has never exceeded $3.5 trillion, and the budget has not been balanced since 2001. In 2011, when total federal debt was approximately $15 trillion, Admiral Mike Mullen, then head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called the national debt the nation’s greatest national security threat. On his campaign website, Buckley explains the impacts of the national debt.
Former Assistant Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Gene Steuerle said in his 2014 book Dead Men Ruling: “Nations that face exploding debt levels or the kind of problems outlined above [relating to the United States’ financial problems] often refuse to pay their debts and declare bankruptcy. Because so many nations depend on the U.S. dollar to stabilize world markets, a U.S. default could prompt not just a U.S. crisis, but a global depression.”
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported on September 21, 2020, that it expects deficits of $1.81 trillion, $1.336 trillion, and $1.124 trillion for 2021-2023, respectively, assuming no major additional spending based on COVID-19. However, an additional COVID-19 bill will very likely be passed, causing these figures to grow substantially. The pandemic has hit the nation much worse than the Great Recession. And, the CBO said earlier this year that, from a financial perspective, it expects it will take ten years for the U.S. to recover from the pandemic. Prior to 2020, over $8 Trillion of debt was incurred following the Great Recession of 2008-2009.
Buckley said: “Those who vote for Kelly Loeffler, Doug Collins or Raphael Warnock are voting to destroy the U.S. These people presumably know that when a debtor takes on more debt, it becomes more risky. Eventually, creditors will want more interest and/or security. Higher interest costs could lead to a fiscal crisis, which in turn produces a depression. Why try to educate or better your children from any perspective, while simultaneously creating a situation where they’ll have to live in a country that will experience a financial collapse? History shows: Collapsing democracies—most collapse due to loose fiscal policy—are followed by dictatorships. I offer solutions to the financial problems. They require reasonable sacrifice. For those who want to vote for financial sanity, I present an option.”
Buckley’s “Save Tomorrow” campaign is about living for today and tomorrow, instead of living for today to the detriment of tomorrow. The focus is on doing things to make tomorrow as good as or even better than today, by acting now to address the nation’s financial challenges and confronting global warming in a practical way.
Mr. Buckley is an attorney/CPA. He can be reached for comment at (404) 610-1936. Mr. Buckley’s campaign website is www.buckleyforsenate.org.
