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Letter to Biden [1]
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Date: 2023-05-05
Dear President Biden,
Please take the debt limit seriously by taking steps now to eliminate non-essential spending:
1) Fuel - Eliminate all non-essential federal travel: no funding for meetings including staff. This should also include any non-essential military use of fuel. Delay any military training involving the air force or any other mechanical equipment. NASA should suspend any non-essential launches. Cuts should not include spending essential to our foreign policy objectives (Ukraine).
2) Buildings - Staff should be encouraged to work remotely. If this applies to the house and senate they may need time to make arrangements to work remotely. If possible, building should be shut, and power reduced to maintenance levels (prevent pipes from freezing). Building temperature controls should be relaxed, and any remaining staff should be allowed to dress accordingly. Hot water should be eliminated unless it is essential for safety or process needs. All facade and exterior lighting should be turned off unless needed for safety (airport beacons, but not general monument lighting for example).
3) Maintenance and construction - All non-essential maintenance and construction should be postponed.
4) Other - If possible new hires should be delayed, and overtime should be eliminated. Managers should be tasked with determining what other non-essential or required expenditures can be postponed.
This is simple prudence. The GOP claims that the debt is an emergency, and therefore their threat to refuse to increase the debt limit should be considered as plausible. Cutting back on discretionary spending puts you on record of responding to their concern, and can buy time for further negotiation. It also provides some information on what the costs of eliminating further debt increases on an emergency basis.
Please act now. The above cuts, drastic though they are, should be much less harmful than default.
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