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Perhaps no other issue will loom as large in the minds of voters come November as the economic outlook facing the country. Bad news seems to be delivered on a daily basis pointing to weakness in various sectors of the economy. Undoubtedly, the decline in the housing market and the sub-prime mortgage foreclosure mess has generated the most concern and has spilled over onto Wall Street. The Federal Reserve has stepped in to bail out the investment bank of Bear Sterns by arranging to cover up to $30 billion in potential losses following J.P. Morgan’s takeover. I believe the American people are fed up with being told that there is no money available to help individuals stay in their homes to avoid foreclosure but at the same time the government insists that they have to bail out Wall Street bankers who put their companies at risk by investing so heavily in speculative sub-prime loans and collateral debt obligations.

Another issue which is dragging the economy down is the high cost of gasoline. Since President Bush took office in 2001, the price of a barrel has quadrupled! The cost of diesel fuel, which hits farmers and independent truckers especially hard, has also skyrocketed to $4 per gallon. Health care costs continue to increase at several times the overall rate of inflation and as the economy has slowed we are now beginning to see a steady increase in unemployment with nearly a quarter of a million jobs lost in the last three months.

I believe that there are several major factors underlying the current economic downturn which need to be addressed. First, the value of the American dollar relative to other currencies is near an all time low. The primary reason is that the United States has allowed the trade deficit with countries such as China to grow unabated. Not only have we permitted companies to ship jobs overseas, we have a dysfunctional trade which provides tax breaks to companies to outsource workers. As a consequence, we have eroded our manufacturing base to the extent that the majority of goods we consume are made overseas.

Second, the Federal budget deficit has continued to grow under the present administration after having enjoyed a surplus under President Clinton. While the current Congress has taken some steps to address the process of “earmarks” which are pet projects of individual members of Congress that end up costing taxpayers billions (remember Sen. Ted Stevens’ (R. Alaska) “bridge to nowhere?), President Bush, who campaigned as a fiscal conservative, did not veto a signal spending bill presented to him by the Republican controlled Congress in his first 6 years in office. The profligate spending by Washington has lead to a massive amount of debt (currently about $9.3 Trillion!) which must constantly be refinanced through the sale of U.S. Treasury Bills. The cost of servicing the federal debt puts pressure on interest rates and creates its own inflationary pressure. Because interest rates are so high, businesses are unable to expand their operations because they simply cannot afford the financing. So where does the money come to finance the debt? Increasingly, sovereign wealth funds which are controlled by the governments of countries such as China and Saudi Arabia are propping up our economy. If the economy continues to falter, who knows what conditions and leverage these countries may seek to impose on our way of living.

The third major factor affecting the economy is the war in Iraq and to a lesser extent the war in Afghanistan. Since the war began more than 6 years ago, spending for the war has largely been accomplished through supplemental appropriations bills which do not show up in the current fiscal budget. A recent calculation by Nobel Prize winning economist, Joseph Stiglitz, puts the long term costs of the war at 3 Trillion Dollars! Because Congress and the President refuse to implement spending cuts to pay for the current conflict, we are passing on a huge debt to our children. While Americans currently pay nearly $400 billion a year in interest on the current federal debt, when the bill becomes due on our current expenditures in Iraq, most of American’s tax money will go to paying off the debt that we are allowing to be created.

I believe I can address the economic issues which confront us by restoring fiscal discipline to Washington, D.C. I will never forget that it is the taxpayers money which they intrusting me to spend with the utmost care and discretion. The best way to accomplish this is to make sure that taxes on the middle class remain low. I believe every American recognizes the need to pay their fare share of taxes so that we might continue to enjoy our liberties and standard of living. What they can’t abide is wasteful spending. I promise to push for expanded oversight of financial institutions and to require that they accurately account for the value of speculative securities on their books. Furthermore, I am committed to ensuring that any future trade agreements are negotiated to take into account adequate environmental and labor standards so that American workers are not put at a competitive disadvantage. Finally, regardless of how one feels about the current situation in Iraq, I believe we can all agree that we should not expect our children and grandchildren to bear the costs. I will work to ensure that the present and future costs of this war, the war in Afghanistan and our other military commitments and expenditures are explicitly paid for in annual appropriations.