Our G-20 Strategy is Badly Flawed

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA)

As a member of Congress, I am concerned by "Our Agenda for the G-20," the op-ed (June 23) authored by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Larry Summers, director of the national economic council. Their op-ed reflects the "government knows best" philosophy which got us into the global debt crisis and won't get us out of it.

Messrs. Geithner and Summers claim that the president's spend-and-borrow economic policies have caused a dramatic turnaround in the economy. In fact, since President Obama signed his $862 billion economic stimulus bill in February 2009, almost four million private-sector jobs have disappeared. Last month alone, about 90% of America's job growth came from government agencies. Meanwhile, the federal government is borrowing 43 cents of every dollar it spends and borrowing almost $5 billion per day, three times the rate of the previous administration.

The European Union, which got a head start on the president's spend-and-borrow creed years ago, is now paralyzed by fears of a sovereign-debt crisis. It recently created a $1 trillion bailout fund, part of which will be paid for by U.S. taxpayers because many EU governments can no longer raise money in the private markets. This is a problem which may confront America with our $13 trillion debt soon enough.

At a time when we need to be cutting government spending and borrowing in America and throughout the world, the president and his team, including Messrs. Geithner and Summers, are doubling down on the road to bankruptcy.

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