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EDI Speak Up Memo
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The Voice for Young Conservatives

FEBRUARY 1, 2010

The Outrage
Used and forgotten. In 2008, young people gave Democrats their vote and in 2009
Democrats showed young people the door. Well it’s time to tell the Democrats to stop
and listen up. From health care to student loan reform, Democrats policies have
consistently ignored the needs of our generation.  If we want change, 2010 must be
different.
 
What You Can Do About It
Speak up! As a conservative we must begin to win hearts and minds before we can win
elections. The process starts by educating people about what we truly believe. It starts
with you in the classroom.
 
When your friend tells you they voted for Obama, speak up. When you hear someone
saying that Republicans don’t have any answers, speak up. If a professor lectures you on
the need for government health care, speak up.
 
We’ll arm you with the facts you need to win the argument. It’s your job to carry the
message on to your campus. It’s your job to speak up! By engaging ourselves in the
debate we’ll spread the message of conservatism – the message of small government, fiscal
responsibility, and individual rights – to one campus, one classroom, and one student at a
time.

This Week’s Theme: You Can’t Spend More Money Than

You Have
The Promise: “We have to return to some very common-sense principles that everyday
Americans live by. Every time they go to the grocery store, or want to go to the movies, or cash
their paycheck, and that is you can’t spend more than you have.” – Press Secretary Robert Gibbs

The Reality: President Obama sent Congress $3.83 trillion budget which represents a record-
breaking $1.56 trillion deficit

A weekly publication by the College Republican National Committee. Copyright 2010.

Issue 1: The new $3.83 trillion budget is the result of runaway spending

In the past year the Democrat-led White House and Congress have increased the annual deficit
by over 300% - from $458 billion to $1.4 trillion. Seeking to beat their own record – next year’s
budget proposes a $1.56 trillion deficit. Moreover, the budget picture looks bleak long into the
future with an anticipated $5.08 trillion in deficits during the next five years – a 35% increase than
Obama predicted just a year ago. The staggering numbers led the non-partisan CBO to say that

“Under current law, the federal budget is on an unsustainable path because

federal debt will continue to grow much faster than the economy over the long
run. . . Large budget deficits would reduce national saving, leading to more
borrowing from abroad and less domestic investment, which in turn would
depress economic growth in the United States. Over time, accumulating debt
would cause substantial harm to the economy.”

Read more: http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=87D7B86B-18FE-70B2-

A86D11DD1F52ECA4

Issue 2: The only solutions Obama can come up with to rein in the deficit has previously failed

As reported by the Wall Street Journal,

“To get the deficit down by the middle of the decade, Mr. Obama will be relying
on some cuts that have previously been proposed without success, on cooperation
from a wary Congress and on a yet-to-be set up debt commission to suggest
politically difficult choices.”

In other words, the spending is real, the solutions are not. Many of his proposed cuts have been
previously ignored by Congress who is not keen on cutting pork projects that benefit their
constituents. Exempted from any talk of reform thus far have been the growing entitlements of
Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security – which will comprise the majority of our deficits for the
foreseeable future. Moreover, the fiscal forecast for these federal programs is dire considering the
aging baby boomer generation will soon fill their rolls. Altogether it is a picture best described by
Brookings Institute economist Isabel Sawhill who said today,

“In short, these proposals will still leave us with unsustainable deficits as far as the eye can
see. It is depressing to discover that we can no longer even aspire to balance the budget
once the recession is over.”

Read more: h"p://online.wsj.com/ar3cle/

SB10001424052748704722304575037470289762694.html?
mod=WSJ_WSJ_US_Poli3csNCampaign_3#printMode

Issue 3: Young adults are the ones on the hook for the bill

A weekly publication by the College Republican National Committee. Copyright 2010.

Policy-makers in Washington are making decisions with enormous implications for young adults
because we are the ones who will inherit the consequences of their fiscal malfeasance.
Unfortunately it is the nature of the Washington beast to incentivize throwing money at the here-
and-now while pushing problems off onto the next generation. As Robert Samuelson of the
Washington Post, explained

“This makes no sense for the nation, but as politics, it makes complete sense. The elderly
and near elderly are better organized, focus obsessively on their government benefits, and
seem deserving. Grandmas and Grandpas command sympathy.”

Well young adults must command responsibility. It seems an odd role-reversal that young people
must demand older adults to spend more wisely, but that is exactly what we must do. We must
force Washington to make the tough choices to reform discretionary AND entitlement spending
so that young adults will not be forced to pay a lifetime’s worth of higher taxes only to receive none
of the government’s benefits. We must slam on the brakes in this out of control spending spree –
our future literally depends on it.

A weekly publication by the College Republican National Committee. Copyright 2010.