The REAL Inconvenient Truth

Statement

The REAL Inconvenient Truth

As most Ohioans know, Sen. Voinovich has long championed fiscal responsibility, and has become known as the Senate's top "debt hawk." However, helping people understand just how dire our fiscal situation is can be difficult. The senator wants Ohioans to know the truth about where we are as a nation - a truly inconvenient truth that starts with the national debt. Each month - at the beginning of this electronic newsletter - we will be sharing with you a "debt calculator" that gives an estimate of the current U.S. debt as well as your share of that debt. Why is this important? Because the government is wasting your tax dollars paying off the interest on the debt to creditors - including the Chinese government - instead of focusing on our priorities. How much are we paying? Last year, nearly 13 percent of our budget went to paying off the interest on our debt, and we're not even touching the principle. That's nearly $350 billion of your tax money. If paying the debt was a government program, it would be the fourth largest, right behind Social Security, Medicare and national defense. [source: OMB] The time to act is now, before it's too late.

Currently, the U.S. Debt is estimated at: $9,394,354,380,955.73

Your share of today's public debt is: $30,891.15

Supporting Ohio Home Builders, Protecting Homeowners

Recently, the Ohio Home Builders Association visited Sen. Voinovich in his Washington, D.C. office. They discussed their concerns with the housing crisis currently affecting Ohioans and Sen. Voinovich shared with them his efforts to curb this troubling trend. As the senior senator from a state that has been hit especially hard by the housing crisis, Sen. Voinovich understands that Americans are looking to Congress to take real action to help protect homeowners. He played a vital role in drafting a bipartisan legislative plan that would secure additional assistance for Ohio homeowners. The tentative compromise, which steers clear of the sort of irresponsible provisions included in previous bills which would have raised interest rates on hard-working Americans, works to provide immediate relief through Sen. Voinovich-authored provisions. Additionally, Sen. Voinovich has authored three pieces of legislation focused on helping to ease the current crisis and on providing additional tools for neighborhoods to revitalize and restore abandoned properties. So far, Sen. Voinovich's Mortgage Relief Act - which was signed into law by the president last December - is the only bill to become law that directly attempts to ease the foreclosure crisis.

Demanding Answers for High Food Prices

The effects of skyrocketing food prices are being felt both nationally and globally. To combat this problem head-on, Sen. Voinovich, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia, recently requested a Government Accountability Office (GAO) study and report on the rising cost of food prices. Sen. Voinovich understands that Americans - and Ohioans especially - are hurting in so many ways that if we don't takes steps to solve this issue now it will become even more difficult to help in the future. But before you can start to fix a problem, you have to know the cause. That is why he requested GAO conduct this study so he and his colleagues in the Senate can develop commonsense solutions that tie directly to the root cause. Sen. Voinovich will use the information from the report to identify the major factors contributing to the rise in food prices both nationally and globally, what effect continuously high food prices will have on our economy and which groups in our country are most affected by the high costs.

Visiting New Job Corps Center with Labor Sec. Chao

Sen. Voinovich recently joined U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao in a ceremony and tour of the newly relocated Department of Labor Job Corps Center in Cleveland. The center was recently relocated from Carnegie Avenue in Cleveland to its new location on Coit Road in Collinwood. Sen. Voinovich offered brief remarks on Ohio's commitment to economic development and job growth. Additionally, Sen. Voinovich discussed his involvement with Jobs for America's Graduates (JAG) and the organization's Ohio affiliate, Jobs for Ohio's Graduates. As governor of Ohio, he was on the JAG Board of Directors and became National Chairman of the program. Now as Ohio's senior senator, he remains actively involved with JAG, serving on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors. Sen. Voinovich noted that the United States must do more to improve education, particularly for those who are most at risk for dropping out of school. The new Job Corps Center will help to accomplish this outcome. Moreover, the opening of this facility caps many years of work, stretching back to his time as governor of Ohio and mayor of Cleveland to rehabilitate the property where the new center was built. This property, which was the home to a General Motors Corporation Fisher Body facility, will now train the next generation of Ohio's workforce so that it is better able to compete and to succeed in the global economy.

Voting to Save Ohio Jobs and Protect Ohioans' Pocketbooks

Sen. Voinovich, Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee's Clean Air and Nuclear Safety Subcommittee, voted last week against cloture on the Lieberman-Warner climate bill. His vote - and work behind the scenes educating his colleagues on the real-life impact this would have on working families - helped save hundreds of thousands of Ohio jobs and protected Ohio seniors and families from sky-rocketing natural gas, electricity and gasoline costs. The bill failed to garner enough votes - with a final tally of 48 to 36 (60 votes needed to pass) - to bring it to the floor for a final vote. Democrat leadership denied their colleagues, both from across the aisle and in their own party, the opportunity to offer amendments focused on making the legislation less intrusive and less costly on the American economy while achieving real reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The passage of the irresponsible and hasty legislation would have resulted in the most massive bureaucratic intrusion into the lives of Americans since the creation of the Internal Revenue Service. Yet, Sen. Voinovich was very disappointed that the majority chose to squander the unprecedented opportunity they had before them in the name of political partisanship. Sen. Voinovich will continue to work with anyone willing to come to the table on the development of an alternative piece of legislation that does not impose unilateral actions that hurt our economy and drive jobs overseas. Instead, the senator's plan would jump start technology and engage our international partners by developing and deploying the clean energy technologies that everyone recognizes are necessary to solve this global environmental problem. And Ohio could actually create thousands of new jobs manufacturing this new, green technology if we begin to capitalize on this opportunity now.

Taking a Stand Against So-Called "Emergency" Spending

Recently, Sen. Voinovich voted against the massive, fiscally irresponsible "emergency" spending package in the Senate. All of the spending in the package was designated as "emergency," therefore allowing Congress not to pay for it through the budget process and instead continue to deficit spend, leaving it for our children and grandchildren to bear the burden. Sen. Voinovich, the Senate's top "debt hawk," recently released a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report he requested on so-called emergency spending. As part of his effort to rein in wasteful spending and conduct meaningful oversight of government programs, Sen. Voinovich asked GAO to review trends in emergency spending from 1997 through 2006, as well as propose reforms to ensure that emergency funding truly is for real emergencies and not simply a way to camouflage spending that is driving up the national debt. Sen. Voinovich understands that on occasion our nation faces natural disasters or unanticipated crises that require emergency resources. For this reason, Congress cannot estimate all of its emergency spending in the budget. But Sen. Voinovich remains extremely concerned that the emergency designation has been abused in recent years to allow Congress to spend large sums of money outside the budget. He believes it is time for Congress to be honest with the American people about the true state of our nation's fiscal house and stop relying on smoke and mirrors.

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