<Your Name>
<Address>
<City, State, zip>

Date Winter 97

RE: Secure Liberty for our Posterity

Dear Editor,

     Before you run off believing Foxy Loxy and Chicken Little that a balanced budget would be dangerous and unworkable, consider the common sense of a balanced budget and what is it that makes a balanced budget for the nation any different from a balanced budget for a family? Not much, especially when you look at budgeting from a generational perspective.

     What is a generationally balanced budget? It is nothing new to the family budget. Most families have times when they must borrow against future earnings to pay for a house, a car or perhaps college for the kids. Eventually that family will pay off its debts and have something to pass some onto its kids. This same sort of balanced budgeting can be done at the national level (as is done in Sweden and Japan) with generational equity so that each generation pays for its social benefits before it passes on.

     What, you never heard of this sort of thing? It was part of Clinton's 1995 budget. Here it was predicted that without generationally balanced budgeting, a child born after 1992 will end up paying 82% tax rates to pay for the previous generation's entitlements. As President Clinton pointed out back then, passing on such debts to future generations is flat out wrong. Unfortunately, he seems to have forgotten his own words in favor of needlessly scaring seniors and working families about pitfalls of a balanced budget amendment. The solution to our federal fiscal problems is simple, pass a balanced budget amendment. If desired, one can further define it by appropriate Congressional legislation to achieve a proper generational balance that allows for economic downturns, just as one can also directly deal with Social Security and Medicare without hurting those who rely upon these programs.

     Still not sure? Consider the Preamble to the Constitution -- "We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and OUR POSTERITY..."

• One cannot insure domestic tranquility by robbing one generation of its future to placate the political will of another;

• what justice is there to dumping trillions of dollars of debt onto our kids and grandkids?

• Deficit spending does not promote the general welfare. Rather, it robs the future welfare of one generation for the welfare of another.

• One can even doubt our ability to provide for the common defense with the defense budget smaller than the interest payments on our national debt.

• Finally, there will be little liberty for our kids if they are faced with 82% tax rates to pay for their parents and grandparents entitlements.

    The average family can balance its budget and live a decent life without borrowing from the newborn, so can our federal government.

Sincerely, Your Name