A number of economic records have been established during the first 32 months of the Obama administration.
 

Federal spending has surpassed twenty five percent of Gross Domestic Product for the first time since World War II. That rate of spending is nearly forty percent higher than the historic sustainable rate of eighteen percent of GDP, according to the Congressional Office of Management and Budget.

Moreover, for the first time since World War II the ratio of budget deficit to Gross Domestic Product has surpassed ten percent. Each year our nation is now borrowing more than ten percent of the total amount that our entire economy is producing. That amount is generally calculated by using the expenditure method, wherein all consumption, investment, government spending and net exports are added to establish the annual GDP.
 

The accumulated sum of that federal debt has now reached more than two thirds of our Gross Domestic Product for the first time since the end of World War II. It will soon reach one hundred percent of GDP if our congressional leaders fail to curtail our current spending practices where forty cents of every dollar spent is borrowed money.
 

The number of United States taxpayers that actually pay income taxes now stands at forty nine percent. For the first time in the modern era less than half of American tax payers are contributing to income tax revenue, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation.
 

The recent downgrade of the quality of United States sovereign debt by Standard and Poor’s was the first lowering of that rating in the history of our nation
 

The part of the United States workforce that is actively employed is the lowest since 1983. Only about fifty eight percent of the eligible workforce is currently employed, according the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics.
 

The Bureau statistics also show that nearly forty six percent of the unemployed workforce has been long term unemployed. That is the highest number of long term joblessness since the 1930’s. Moreover, the meager one half percent increase in non-farm payroll employment since the alleged end of the recession twenty six months ago is the lowest rate of job recovery following any recession since the end of World War II.
 

Home ownership in the United States has plummeted to less than sixty percent. That is the lowest percentage of home owners since 1965, according to the United States Census.
 

And the most damning record achieved by the current administration is the number of persons depending on their government for sustenance. Forty seven percent of those who live in the United States are receiving one or more federal benefit payments. That astounding dependency record is the highest in American history.
 

The administration has enacted myriad policies and invested trillions of dollars into the economy. The failed policies include $825 million in stimulus spending, cash for clunkers and the multibillion dollar bailouts of General Motors and Chrysler.

They include nearly half a dozen forms of home mortgage foreclosure relief, home-buyers credits and the ongoing multibillion dollar cash infusions into Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Huge sums have been borrowed to leverage public-private investment partnerships to purchase toxic assets from banks. Financial regulations have been enacted that have dried up investment capital and destroyed the balance sheets of many small and mid-sized banks.

Vast sums are being devoted to renewable energy subsidies that ultimately produce power that is so unaffordable that it too must be subsidized in order to sell. Multiple reproducible studies in several nations have clearly shown that the administration’s green energy promotion is killing two private sector jobs for every green sector job created.
 

The impending economic effects of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will soon be visited upon us. ObamaCare will result in government takeover of nearly one third of our national economy, virtually eliminate medical choice, enforce myriad new rules and regulations, and levy multiple new taxes to further throttle our national economy.
 

President Obama’s recent speech before Congress appears to guarantee more of the same. He promises to spend another $450 billion of mostly borrowed money on programs that are largely destined to fail or that have already failed. This massive cash infusion is to be paid for by as yet unidentified future spending reductions and increased taxes on the rich.
 

Undisciplined attempts to offset current uncontrolled spending with future spending reductions has resulted in more than $14 trillion in sovereign debt and as much as $100 trillion in total debt and unfunded liabilities. Further, taxing the wealthiest one percent of Americans at a marginal tax rate equal to one hundred percent of their income would not begin to offset our current rate of deficit spending.
 

The President and I hold widely disparate understandings of the role of government. He appears to believe that government is the solution to every problem. I believe that government is usually the cause of the problem.
 

Please remember, if we do not stand up for rural Oregon… no one will.

Best Regards,
 

Doug