SUMMERS FOR STATE SENATE   SEARCH OUR WEBSITE     Deficit Spending Every working American is acquainted with the principle of balancing his or her checkbook.  You have income.  You have expenses.  If your expenses are larger than your income, you either cut expenses or you start getting nasty letters from your bank and your creditors about bounced checks. Maybe you end up in court. Maybe you go to jail. Unfortunately, we—the people—are the federal government's "bank" ... and right now, we don't have any way to bounce the rubber checks that Congress writes and the president signs. Deficit spending is no different in principle for the government than it is for you or me.  It happens when government spends more money than it takes in. When that happens, the people must inevitably take it on the chin sooner or later. Either the government raises taxes, or it inflates the currency, reducing the spending power of the money we've earned, to pay off the debt it has amassed. One obvious solution, of course, is to forbid Congress to spend more than it takes in.  While a "balanced budget amendment" to the Constitution has been proposed—and while I support such an amendment—there's no substitute for a chief executive whose veto pen stands ready to shut down any congressional appropriations in excess of revenues. A second solution is to put the American economy back on real money, backed by gold and silver, and to take away the ability of the Federal Reserve to create "money" out of thin air, debasing the value of the "money" in your wallet. The Constitution delegates the power to coin money to Congress.   As your Senator, I'll insist that we discharge this responsibility instead of fobbing the job off on an external entity like the Fed.  I will vote against legislation for any such operation that doesn't meet the true test of money: It is either made of gold or silver, or can be redeemed for a fixed amount of gold or silver. A nation's money is its economic lifeblood. Passing on our debt to future generations, or defrauding the people and the government's creditors with inflation, are not options. Those paths lead inevitably to economic collapse; we need a plan that leads to long-term prosperity.