Braley’s voting record puts future generation at risk

By Ben Lange

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From the beginning, American society has been bound together by a generational compact in which each generation has sought to create the conditions for the next generation to live better than the last.

Yet our national debt has skyrocketed to $16 trillion and D.C. politicians now borrow 40 cents of every dollar spent. Politicians have indebted my three little girls to the tune of $150,000 before they can even ride a bicycle.

This is the greatest social injustice of my lifetime, perpetrated not by one class against another, nor one race against another, but by one generation against the next.

Iowans must stand against these entrenched politicians who slither into lives of privilege and prestige, sit on their hands as our debt increases by billions of dollars per day, deny they are to blame, tell us it cannot be fixed, and scare the masses.

We cannot solve our national debt crisis with the current crop of leaders in Washington. They are stuck fighting old battles, repeating stale arguments, fanning the flames of division, stumbling over their own incompetence, and, whenever possible, using the coercive power of the state to impose their values on the rest of us.

Can we not find a better example than Bruce Braley - a devoted leftist who has mastered the stale politics of division and deflection?

Braley has voted for trillion-dollar deficits that have nearly doubled our national debt. He has voted to increase the debt limit seven times without cuts. He voted to bail out Wall Street on the back of Main Street. He led the fight for ObamaCare in the House of Representatives. He supported cap-and-trade, which would have crippled Iowa businesses.

Braley also voted against the one law that could have restored confidence in our government - namely, a balanced-budget amendment (which I have been proposing for years). Of course, this year is an election year and Braley is a politician. So when Braley flip-flopped two weeks ago, announcing he had changed his mind and will now support a balanced-budget amendment, it was, admittedly, somewhat comical.

Iowans are accustomed to such tricks. But they would be more believable if such dramatic conversions did not come one week after our campaign launched a districtwide radio ad highlighting the national debt and two weeks after Braley commissioned a $22,000 poll from a Washington pollster.

Moreover, the reason Braley cited for voting against the balanced budget amendment on the House floor was, in his words, “What if our nation suddenly goes to war?” Perhaps Braley didn't read Section 5 which stated, “The provisions of this article may be waived for any fiscal year in which the United States is engaged in military conflict.”

Braley and the current crop of politicians have broken the generational compact and put future generations of Americans at risk of total financial collapse.

To restore the generational compact, to fix the national debt crisis, and to grow the private-sector economy, Iowans must take the lead and send a new breed of political leader to Washington who has the political guts to put principle before party.

If we choose not to change course, we will deserve the government we elect, the fate we have sealed, and the shame of squandering the blood of our ancestors and the very beacon of freedom for all mankind.

Ben Lange is an attorney from Independence. Comments: info@langeforcongress.com