Originally Published March 10, 2010 in The Daily Caller

Congress must adopt a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced federal budget. Our nation’s economic future may well depend on it. Today our national debt sits at more than $12 trillion. The president’s budget projects more than a $1.6 trillion shortfall this year. When you include all of the unfunded liabilities of paying for future entitlement spending the national debt looks more like $65 trillion. It is also projected that in the next 15 years our national debt will eclipse our gross domestic product, essentially bankrupting our government.

This is a bleak picture to say the least.

While these debt figures can be almost numbing, the bottom line is this: our nation is speeding toward a precipice of complete financial calamity. The only solution is to hold Congress’ feet to the fire and require that they, like every family and nearly every state in the country, have a balanced budget. We can no longer recklessly spend money we don’t have. If lawmakers are serious about fiscal responsibility, a constitutional amendment to balance the federal budget should be adopted.

Adoption of a constitutional amendment to require a balanced budget is an enormous task and will take an immense amount of political will but our future and our children’s future depends on lawmakers having the fortitude to do the right thing. To become law the measure must be passed by two-thirds of both houses of Congress and then be ratified by two-thirds of the states. In 1995 and then again in 1997 a balanced budget amendment passed the House but failed to meet the two-thirds requirement in the Senate by a single vote. It won’t be easy, but it’s not impossible.

We are in the midst of a deep recession that has slowed economic growth severely but I want to be clear, our current deficit is not a result of the recession. We are not deep into this hole because of economic factors outside our control. While I’ll be one of the first to admit that both parties have driven the deficit in Washington over the past decade, the truth is, the Obama Administration took a bad situation and made it worse.

The president has increased the debt by $1.47 trillion. Under his administrations’ budget, the debt will triple by 2019, jumping to $17.5 trillion. The president’s proposed spending freeze is just a gimmick and capping spending at already outrageous levels won’t do any good. If we do not push hard for real, measurable change the rising national debt will cause higher taxes and inflation to skyrocket with the value of the dollar plummeting.

The only fiscally responsible method to balance our budget is to stop spending more than we have. It’s not overly complicated. It’s not the concept that is hard; it’s finding the will to do so. Millions of American families do it. Millions of American small businesses do it. Forty-nine states do it. It’s time for the federal government to do it too.

There is also an unsustainable imbalance between long-term federal entitlement spending commitments and projected revenues; the implications of foreign ownership of federally issued debt needs to be studied, and clearly the federal budget process, which has given us a current debt of $12.3 trillion and projected current year deficit of $1.6 trillion, needs drastic reform.

Many of my colleagues have legitimate concerns that a balanced budget amendment would just be a stalking horse for Congress to raise taxes. I understand these concerns and we will have to continue to fight against raising taxes as it is not the solution to our budget problems. However, that concern must not overshadow and does not outweigh the accountability a balanced budget requirement would bring to Congress and the federal government.

Hopefully the recent attention to our budget catastrophe, and the realization that we can expect to overspend more in just the next 10 years than our nation has previously done in the last 220 years, will spur action on a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget. It is not too late but the situation is dire. Congress must start to cut spending and reign in out of control deficits and a balanced budget requirement may be the only way to do it.

July 26, 2010

Washington, D.C. — The families and victims of the tragic Fort Hood shooting last year will receive combat benefits if an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011 offered by Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.) becomes law. They will have to wait, however, to receive the full details of the restricted portion of the Department of Defense´s report on the Fort Hood attack.

Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.), Marine Corps combat veteran and the primary sponsor for the Fort Hood amendments, stated, “I´m deeply disappointed that the majority has chosen to be complicit in the Defense Department´s willful concealment of the restricted portion of this report because it may be politically embarrassing. This should not be a partisan issue and the American people deserve to know the full findings

“I am glad, however, that the committee has come together to recognize that the victims of the Fort Hood terrorist attack are just as much a part of the War on Terror as any other service member in a combat zone and will be treated as such.”

“I´m pleased that the committee decided to grant combat benefits to the victims and families of the tragic shooting at Fort Hood last year. Our military personnel and their families were attacked on their home base and deserve to know all of the information about how Major Hassan was radicalized,” said U.S. Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-Calif.), the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee.

July 22, 2010

In a first ever – the small inlet community of Glendale, surprisingly located in Arapahoe County, although almost in Cherry Creek, had their new Infinity Center host the annual Lincoln Day dinner.

It was a warm summer afternoon for the 5 p.m. reception with Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, out early on the campaign trail looking for presidential interest. The 50-year-old was the featured dinner speaker honoring Abraham Lincoln, founder of the Republican Party.

The partisan two-county audience attended the combined dinner for both Denver and Arapahoe counties, something new and daring by Republican leadership and displaying the lack of a single elected Republican leader within Denver County.

Senate candidates Jane Norton and Ken Buck were present and both spoke along with Dan Maes, primary candidate for Colorado governor with top ballot designation from the Colorado GOP Assembly.

Norton told the 400 Republicans, “Hope is on the way.” She related that the Federal government is out of control.

Norton summed it up quickly, “I am pro-business, pro-marriage and pro-family.”

She favors repealing Obamacare, wants a balanced budget, no earmarks, no cap and trade, secure borders, stand with Israel and win the war on terror.  She related these points in less than the allotted five minutes given to her speech.

Ken Buck spoke about having term limits, and that the choice in 2010 was to “make history, or change history.” He took a hard line on immigration and both he and Norton did not offer any personal attacks during their brief speeches.

Scott McInnis was in Aspen at a conflicting event and could not make it back to Denver. Someone said that he might be at a water meeting.

Maes related that government is like a big chess game: Players must figure out the next move to cut taxes, have a smaller government and work on illegal immigration. Maes is an Evergreen businessman seeking his first bid for public office.

Arapahoe’s leading private servants, Bo and Lynn Cottrell, conducted an auction to raise money for the two county party organizations, both badly in need of funds.

Pawlenty and his wife had to depart early to travel to another engagement but he spoke briefly to the Lincoln celebrants.

He related his experience in bringing budgets under control in Minnesota.

“We can’t spend more than we have,” he said. “If the government was a bank they would have to shut themselves down.

“If freedom was easy, everyone would be free, if prosperity was easy everyone would be prosperous, if security was easy, everyone would be secure. We enjoy more freedoms than anyone else.  The government is taking away our choices and our freedoms. We want to decide on our dreams, not the government.”

Congressman Mike Coffman was greeted with a standing ovation and gave a brief message about fiscal responsibility, something he always stood for during his career before being elected to Congress in 2008.  An ex-marine he wants to secure the borders and related how he fought in a foreign country to secure their borders, but we can’t seem to secure our own.

Concluding the evening, Arapahoe County GOP Chairman Dave Kerber gave a stirring speech about The Denver Post attack on governor candidate Scott McInnis relating the columns, cartoons and headlines all seemed to be orchestrated in a planned effort to degrade McInnis.

July 22, 2010

U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman will be a featured speaker at the Americans for Budget Reform Rally on August 21, 2010. As Co-Chair of the first Balanced Budget Caucus in the history of the U.S. Congress, Congressman Coffman is proud to champion the cause of balancing America’s budget. For information on attending the rally, to sign the petition in support of a balanced budget, and more, visit www.AmericansforBudgetReform.com.

U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman and Chris Davis of Americans for Budget Reform join the Amy Oliver show on 1310 KFKA to discuss why we must have a balanced budget amendment and the August rally in support of Congressman Coffman’s proposed amendment.

Listen to the entire interview here! 

July 19, 2010

Sixth-District Colorado Congressman Mike Coffman fired up the party faithful Saturday at the Republican Lincoln Day Dinner in Centennial by unleashing a tea-party-style broadside lambasting President Obama as the leader of a socialist takeover of America.

“This election will be a referendum on the direction of our country,” he said. “This election will be a referendum on whether America continues to go down the path of socialism or down the path of a free-enterprise system.”

Coffman likened this year in politics to 1776. He said Republican voters would rise up against “the forces” of Obama like the American colonists rose up against King George to win independence from the British.

“Come election time when Barack Obama has lost the Congress of America and his march of socialism in America is halted and his assaults on individual liberty in America are stopped, you will hear him say ‘Where did all these people come from?’ ”

Coffman holds the seat formerly held by anti-illegal immigration firebrand Tom Tancredo, and Coffman on Saturday placed immigration politics close to the center of his talk. He said that Obama’s administration embraced defacto policies that granted sanctuary in this county to illegal aliens. He said Denver and Boulder were “sanctuary cities” in Colorado that defied the law of the land by not seeking to deport undocumented residents.

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper’s administration has told the Colorado Independent that the city complies with all federal and state laws to refer illegal aliens to immigration and customs authorities.

Coffman said he was planning to travel to Arizona in support of that state’s recent controversial immigration laws.

Candidates for office dotted the room at the Centennial Center where the Denver and Aurora parties fundraiser was held, including U.S. Senate candidates Jane Norton and Ken Buck, Seventh-District Congressional candidate Ryan Frazier and gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes. Conspicuously absent was Maes’s primary opponent, front-runner Scott McInnis, who is reeling from revelations that he plagiarized articles he was commissioned to write four years ago by the conservative Hasan Family Foundation

July 16, 2010

Former Colorado U.S. Sen. Gary Hart, vice chair of U.S. Homeland Security Advisory Council, moderated the “Stopping Terrorism through Transnational Security Cooperation” forum in front of hundreds of interested citizens and Colorado leaders at the Seawell Ballroom in Denver. It was sponsored by Biennial of the Americas Denver 2010 and The CELL, the Counterterrorism Education Learning Lab.

The four panelists, whose experience in preventing terrorism ranged from diplomatic artistry, law enforcement and military strategy as well as public activism, were William Brownfield, U.S. Ambassador to Columbia since 2007; W. Ralph Basham, former Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection from 2006 to 2009; General Victor Renuart, who retired his post as commander of U.S. Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) only one week prior as an Air Force four-star general; and Oscar Morales, the youngest counselor to the UN’s One Young World and a Columbian native who successfully used social media to organize millions of protestors in Colombia and across the world against terrorism and the FARC — a Colombian terrorist organization — in 2008.

The message from all four panelists was predominately clear: complacency is the world’s worst enemy as national superpowers and small countries alike strive to extinguish terrorism.

“The challenge is that our consciousness as a nation is very finite. We tend to want to get past this immediate problem. We want to solve it right now and get on with life,” Renuart said. “And these kinds of threats, whether they’re local or transnational terrorists, don’t look at a watch. They take their time — they’re very deliberate.

“We have to develop a coalition that has patience. And that’s been one of the real challenges. The longer we’ve gone since Sept. 11, the more difficult it is to keep that coalition together,” Renuart added.

Morales echoed those comments. He said a quiet but frustrated public in Colombia allowed daily attacks and kidnappings by the FARC to continue for more than 40 years.

“All we did in the past is complain in front of the TV set. That’s all. We complain. We go into the super markets, we complain there. We go on the bus and we complain about how the government does nothing,” Morales said.

FARC, which uses a Spanish acronym that translates to English meaning “Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army, is a terrorist organization formed in 1964 that claims that it fights for the country’s poor and funds itself through criminal acts, like kidnapping ransoms.

Morales’ frustration with the FARC and his nation’s complacency blossomed into a movement still causing ripples throughout the world today. His idea for the One Million Voices Against FARC was hatched on Facebook where he tried to organize people who, like him, were infuriated by the violence. One Million Voices turned into millions more than expected as an estimated seven to 12 million Colombians took to the streets in protest on Feb. 4, 2008.

The majority is still taking action and support for the army is helping,” Morales said. “We’re telling terrorists, ‘we’re not going to take it anymore. We are fed up with violence. We are not going to allow this to happen for another 40 years. This has got to stop.’”

Ambassador Brownfield said the protests were extremely impactful in the 2008 release of 15 prisoners, including three Americans, held captive by the FARC for five and a half years. Brownfield said he was part of the crew to pick up the Americans only forty minutes after they were airlifted from the FARC camp to a safe zone.

“I was talking to three guys who got up that morning absolutely convinced that it was going to be another day and another five and a half years of them staying in the jungle,” Brownfield said. “The impact [of the One Million Voices demonstration] had actually reached them. They heard about it on the radios and they were watching their FARC jailers and they were reacting to what was happening.”

Morales continues to combat terrorism and advocate activism with his Alliance of Youth Movements — an annual summit to joining 20 different youth movements and organizations.

Addressing national complacency on terrorism is the goal of the prime sponsor of last week’s forum, The CELL — a Denver-based museum dedicated to terrorism awareness. Earlier in the same day, The CELL was awarded with the Community Outreach Award from the Colorado Department of Public Safety.

Museum founder Larry Mizel kicked off the event by thanking those in attendance and a long list of supporters.

“These are serious issues that affect each and every one of us,” Mizel said before thanking Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, who gave the evening’s introductory address, and U.S. Reps. Mike Coffman, Republican from CD 6, Democrat Ed Perlmutter, from Colorado’s CD 7, and former U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, Republican, for their leadership against terrorism.

Hickenlooper said terrorism surveillance is integral for Denver which has become a “hotspot” for international events like the Biennial of the Americas — a cultural and arts festival taking place in Denver this July in celebration of the Western Hemisphere.

“We’ve taken considerable steps and measures here in Denver to cooperate with local state and national authorities to make sure that we keep our city and state safe. This endeavor requires cooperation at every level including the need for transnational security cooperation,” he said. “As you do international events, it becomes a greater responsibility to really be aware of threats to really enhance our capabilities to ensure our communities safety.”

Since Sept. 11, the U.S. has made major strides in information sharing between its military, law enforcement agencies and other countries, the panelists said.

“We share intelligence with Mexico and Canada and within the North American community in ways that on Sept. 10, 2001, we would never consider,” Renuart said. “We share across our law enforcement and military agencies today in ways that were not possible before Sept. 11.”

The panelist credited the increase in information sharing to the 2004 formation of the National Counter Terrorism Center, which analyzes intelligence from multiple U.S. law enforcement agencies like the FBI and CIA.

“In my 39 years in law enforcement I have never seen a time when there has been more cooperation, and sharing information within law enforcement and the military,” said Basham, who warned that nation’s effort in intelligence sharing could still be bolstered. “However, having said that, it remains extremely difficult to share that information. There are impediments to share information.

“Sharing information with state and local law enforcement is a very difficult process,” he continued. “Who can you give the information to? And we know, that quite frankly, state and local law enforcement do the bulk of work in this country when it comes to identifying potential threats. We got to figure out a way to share the kinds of information everyone collects.”

Brownfield concurred, saying the nation must continue to “eliminate the firewalls between U.S. government, state government and local government institutions in the United States of America.

“Let’s take that same concept and extend it overseas,” he said.

In the U.S.’s ongoing war against terrorism, the panel said Americans must be prepared for the long haul.

“[Terrorists are] going back, reengineering and they’re looking for ways to attack this country and they’re not going to stop,” Basham said.

Traditional war time victory, like in World War Two where there were defined winners and losers, cannot be expected, Brownfield said. Instead, diplomacy and an entrenched foreign embassy must be implemental in organizing peace, he said.

“Diplomacy is the arch, if you will, of using powers of persuasion, both public and private communication between governments to get different governments to coordinate and do the same thing. That’s what diplomats are supposed to be doing,” Brownfield said.

“From a diplomatic standpoint, achieving peace won’t be pretty. I believe, for example, at some point in time, the FARC in Columbia will be stripped down to the point where they will finally be ready for a serious peace process,” the U.S. Ambassador to Columbia predicted. “At that point we’re going to have to add the soft side of our diplomatic efforts to this.”

That means “making a terrorist thug who have been terrorizing communities for the last 45 years and satisfy them so that they can in fact disarm and have some role in the future in these communities.

“It will be dirty, it will be unpopular, but at the end of the day it will be absolutely necessary,” Brownfield said.

Hart, who has spent his post-senatorial as a member of the bipartisan National Commission on Terrorism during the Clinton administration and currently as a member of the Council for Foreign Relations, ended the forum in a cautionary tone.

“We did not defeat fascism by ourselves. We did not defeat communism by ourselves. We will not defeat terrorism by ourselves,” he said. “This is an international charge that affects a lot more people than just those of us in the United States. We are fortunate in this country to be as secure as we are. We are not as secure as we would like and probably never will be. We are all in this together and it is together that we will overcome this problem.”

WASHINGTON, DC — June 23, 2010— The International Foodservice Distributors Association (IFDA) is pleased to recognize U.S. Representative Michael Coffman with a 2010 Thomas Jefferson Award, honoring the legislator’s work to strengthen our nation’s free enterprise system and support economic prosperity. During each Congress, IFDA presents the Thomas Jefferson Award to Senators and Member of the U.S. House of Representatives who demonstrate their commitment to building our nation’s economy and reducing government regulation. The Award is based on Congressional voting records on issues critical to the growth and prosperity of the foodservice distribution industry and our nation’s overall economy. Recipients of the Award have shown their dedication to restoring our nation’s economic and fiscal health during the 111th Congress.

“In this critical time, Representative Coffman has stood strong and taken the difficult votes to protect America’s businesses, stimulate economic growth, and promote prosperity for the American people, said IFDA President and CEO Mark S. Allen. “The Thomas Jefferson Award is our way of recognizing and thanking those lawmakers who have worked to strengthen American business by standing true to the ideals of Thomas Jefferson. Foodservice distributors touch the life of every American consumer on a daily basis. In a time when many are advocating greater government intervention in our economy, we advocate supporting the free market system that is the backbone of our nation’s prosperity and this award publicly recognizes legislators who support those free market principles.”

Recipients of the award supported IFDA’s position at least 70 percent of the time on 9 House votes deemed critical to the foodservice distribution industry and the Jeffersonian ideals of free enterprise. These included votes on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (HR 3590), The American Clean Energy and Security Act (HR 2454) and the FY 2010 Congressional Budget Resolution (S.Con.Res. 13) among others. The complete list of votes can be found on the IFDA web site at www.ifdathomasjeffersonawards.org.

The program, introduced in 1992, was inspired by Thomas Jefferson, who in his first inaugural address said, “A wise and frugal government … shall leave men … free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.”

The award itself is a custom-sculptured replica of Jefferson as depicted in the Jefferson Memorial, framed by his four pillars of prosperity: agriculture, manufacturing, commerce, and navigation.

July 15, 2010

Recently, the House considered legislation (H.R. 5297) that will create a $30 billion fund for the secretary of the Treasury to use to make capital investments in smaller financial institutions.  The investments are allegedly to encourage small business lending.  I ran a small business before coming to Congress, and I know that access to capital is important — especially during these tough times.  But this legislation does not include any requirements that banks actually use the money to lend to small businesses. I opposed the bill because it puts the taxpayer under billions of dollars more of obligation and does not offer a guarantee that small businesses will benefit from the funding. 

That’s right — there is no guarantee that the banks must lend the money they receive from the taxpayer.  Instead, the bill attempts to persuade banks to do so by allowing them to pay back the taxpayers at lower rates if the banks offer more loans.  But, if no loans are made after two years, participating banks would pay no penalty.  Maybe I haven’t been in Washington long enough, but supporting a bill to increase small business lending that does not actually require increased small business lending makes no sense.

Although similar to the 2008 Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) that first offered bailouts to financial institutions, this bill does not require the same strength of oversight and accountability as the first TARP did.  TARP has an extensive oversight mechanism, but this bill was excluded from it.  Alarmingly, in May more than 90 banks missed their monthly TARP payment.  This shows the risk associated with government funded bailouts.  There is simply no assurance this $30 billion will ever be repaid.

Federal spending and debt are already out of hand.   We have added $2.4 trillion to the national debt in the last 18 months.  America needs a reasonable, pro-growth economic policy to promote jobs development and business expansion.  We do not need, and cannot tolerate, more bailouts and increases to the size and scope of government.