Alan Simpson, a former U.S. senator from Wyoming, said deficits are a financial cancer that will wreck the nation’s economy.
Simpson, a Republican, criticizes both Republicans and Democrats for failing to fix the federal deficit. Simpson is former co-chairman of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.
“The American people know the fiscal path that Washington is on is not sustainable. These deficits are like a cancer. They’re going to destroy the country from within,” Simpson said.
In a candid interview with Fox News, Simpson said the commission he co-chaired with Erskine Bowles, President Bill Clinton’s Chief of Staff, recommended changes in the tax code, cuts in entitlement spending and other measures to bring down the deficits. Those measures have not been formally accepted by Congress or the White House.
Similar proposals by a Super Committee in Congress, made up of six Republicans and six Democrats, have gained little traction. The Super Committee is tasked with cutting $1.5 trillion from federal deficits, but few people expect it to succeed.
In our country’s past, people who were willing to sacrifice our country’s survival for personal, political or monetary gain were labelled and convicted as traitors.
With the ongoing posturing of our “representatives” and the inevitable failure of the congressional “Supercommittee” to reach an agreement, I have sadly added our congressional leaders to that infamous group.