Testimony Before the House Committee on Ways and Means October 29, 2008

Mark Sanders, governor of South Carolina, is the man.

I would highly, highly encourage you to read this entire testimony he gave before the Committee Ways and Means in the House. Ways and Means determines taxation, tariffs and other spending measures that impact you. It's pretty powerful.

Here are some highlights:

"Our national debt is now over $10 trillion – more than $4 trillion higher than when I left Congress at the end of 2000. We’re spending more paying interest on this debt (roughly $20 billion monthly) than we are on the War in Iraq (around $12 billion)."

"Their point is that we have over $52 trillion in contingent liability, amounting to a roughly $450,000 invisible mortgage hanging over the head of each and every American family."

"I’d ask you as political decision-makers in an overwhelmingly economic crisis to take the Hippocratic Oath and pledge to “do no [more] harm.” I believe the macroeconomic forces at work will hardly be slowed by an additional $150 billion, and I’d strongly urge against further tampering with what in principle should be a free-market economy. "

"In short, I’d ask members of the Committee to simply give the states more freedom. Give us more flexibility. Give us more in the way of control over the dollars we already have and less in the way of costs. Give us more options, not more money with federal strings attached. "