Mike Lee and "The Pledge"

Today in the Cannon House Office Building Caucus Room, Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) will participate in a press conference with many of his colleagues to introduce a topic he hinted at when he spoke to the Utah Republican Party Organizing Convention last weekend here in Utah.

The topic of today's press conference is to announce "The Pledge;"

I pledge to urge my Senators and Member of the House of Representatives to oppose any debt limit increase unless all three of the following conditions have been met:


Cut - Substantial cuts in spending that will reduce the deficit next year and thereafter.


Cap - Enforceable spending caps that will put federal spending on a path to a balanced budget.


Balance - Congressional passage of a Balanced Budget Amendment to the U.S. Constitution -- but only if it includes both a spending limitation and a super-majority for raising taxes, in addition to balancing revenues and expenses.

Laugh if you want -- "yeah, right, would any politician actually commit to such a path?" -- but I for one salute the junior senator from Utah for his unrelenting determination to change the "business as usual" approach to what's going on among lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

I'm going to be interested in how many like-minded people there are, who will actually take steps to address the details of our spending as a nation. The Federal Reserve has downgraded its projections for growth in the economy from two-month-old estimates. I'm guessing the conflagration of tripwires in the economy is going to force a resolution among lawmakers, not because they will voluntarily sign up for distasteful political realities, but because conditions will compel them to finally get serious.

At the press conference remarks will also be offered by Senators Hatch, DeMint, Rubio and others.

I don't know about any of you, but I for one am grateful for these men who have the guts to take on the problem without apologies to the go-along-to-get-along crowd that has put us in the financial jeopardy we find ourselves as a nation. Until this moment in time, nothing like this has happened, and I credit an aroused electorate for putting the pressure on the elected representatives.

It's why we sent Mike Lee to Washington. If not in 2012, then in the cycle after that in 2014, the Senate must turn over into a filibuster-proof majority with enough votes to turn the Republic around. Today's press conference is only a good start. . . but,

I like the direction it's going. . .