I received a reply to my letter to my Congresswoman.
On 9/19/2011 4:50 PM, Congresswoman Virginia Foxx wrote:
September 19, 2011
Dear Mr. Whitehead:
Thank you for contacting me with your. As your Representative in Congress, I appreciate hearing from constituents about their concerns.
We agree about the importance of balancing our budget by cutting bloated federal spending. You will be pleased to know that I have voted for H.R. 2560, the Cut, Cap and Balance Act, when it passed the House with a bipartisan vote of 234-190 and would have conditioned a debt ceiling increase on passage through Congress of a BBA. Since Senate liberals rejected that bill, Republicans fought to condition passage of a BBA as a fall back option in the event the debt ceiling increase does not provide for expected spending cuts in S. 365, the Budget Control Act, which I voted for before it was ultimately signed into law.
History has shown time and time again that increasing taxes is not a long-term solution. Indeed, without spending cuts and procedural reform, we are destined to repeat the same mistakes during this time of critical negotiations. That is why I am also a cosponsor of H.J.Res. 1 which would amend the Constitution to require balanced budget achieved by capping federal spending. Section five contains a provision stating: “A bill to increase revenue shall not become law unless two-thirds of the whole number of each House shall provide by law for such an increase by a rollcall vote.”
Attached is information providing additional perspectives on the BBA as well as H.Con.Res. 34, which is the Fiscal Year 2012 Congressional Budget Resolution that I voted for when it passed the House by a vote of 235-193, but rejected by the liberal Democrat-controlled Senate. This measure outlines a trajectory encompassing a multitude of creative spending cuts and my hope is that you help educate others about the importance of our continuing on this positive course.
If you need more information or have additional concerns, please don't hesitate to contact me. Thank you for visiting my award winning website, www.foxx.house.gov. We update our site daily and it is a great resource to learn about constituent services, legislative updates and my work in Congress. I hope you will continue to utilize the website and let me know what you think about it.
Sincerely,
Virginia Foxx
Representative
VF/js
Dang, they dodged the question. My reply:
Congresswoman Foxx,
Thanks for your response.
Did you have a chance to think about balancing the budget over the business cycle? i.e., run a deficit during a recession and a surplus during periods of economic growth?
Your proposals seem very inflexible.
Thanks,
John Whitehead
Here is the reply I received:
This is not an active email address and any email received at this address will not be responded to. Please visit my award-winning website www.foxx.house.gov/contact to contact me. Thank you.