U.S. Rep. Connie Mack IV faced accusations of using public money for campaigning when he sent an office mailer about his "Penny Plan" beyond his southwest Florida congressional district in May. Mack, R-Fort Myers, is running statewide for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate.
Mack blamed the widespread mailing on the vendor who had also done campaign work for Mack. The vendor then reimbursed the government.
While who received the mailer drew much scrutiny, what the mailer actually said drew less attention.
Mack’s mailer was about a plan he introduced in May 2011 to balance the budget that he says is so basic it comes down to -- you guessed it -- a penny.
"The Mack Penny Plan is simple -- eliminate one penny out of every federal dollar spent," the mailer said. "Doing this would balance our budget by 2019 and restore economic freedom by reducing spending and bringing fiscal discipline to Washington. The Penny Plan continues to gain support and now has 70 cosponsors in the House of Representatives, as well as support from key senators like Marco Rubio, Pat Toomey and Rand Paul. If Florida families can cut one penny, or more, out of every dollar in their budgets, so can Washington."
We had a few questions about Mack’s plan:
• Does the math work -- would it balance the budget in eight years?
• How would Mack get to that 1 percent cut each year -- would it be across the board in every area, including Social Security and Medicare?
• Is it really gaining support? Or is it stalled?
PolitiFact picks apart Mack's Penny Plan. Check out this rap about the plan which says "Could a penny be enough? Oh a penny is plenty!"
Pegging the size of government to the GDP is bad policy. It sounds good now because it would reduce the size of government. These are tough times, but what will happen when the economy grows? The politicians will feel justified in growing the government. Social Security and Medicare are issues that need to be tackled separately. We have to come up with an actuarily sound plan that funds these programs. That will take real leadership, but that does not exist in Washington. The rest of the budget should be cut by forcing the Federal Government OUT of everything it is not constitutionally entitled to be involved in.
Posted by: Anti-Tallahassee | July 05, 2012 at 01:06 PM
Well ... about 5 trillion in outstanding debt is held by foreign and international interests.
If they are averaging as little as 2.5% interest payments annually, then we are paying them roughly 137 B each year ...
... just shipping that money right out of our economy into theirs or their bank accounts.
So let's suspend interest payments to foreign and international interests by 1/2, down to about 62 B yearly.
That's twice what Mack's penny plan calls for, so we could achieve balance in 3 instead of 5 years.
And we tell the foreigners, they'll get some of their money now, but will have to wait on the rest ... unless they act uppity. If they act uppity, we just cancel what we owe them.
If they want to punish us by no more lending to us, so be it. That would actually be good medicine for the overspenditis our federal government has.
Posted by: whasup | July 05, 2012 at 05:04 PM