'America is going broke,' says Rep. Frank Wolf

Rep. Frank R. Wolf told a Senate committee this week that it's imperative that a bipartisan commission be created to deal with the mounting national debt.

"I have never been more concerned about the future of our country," said Wolf, who represents Manassas, Manassas Park and part of western Prince William County. "America is going broke."

The Republican said that the federal government now owes a greater total in debts and commit-ments than the combined net worth of all Americans.

"The national debt is racing toward $12 trillion and growing at rates that haven't been matched since World War II," Wolf said at a hearing Tuesday before the Senate Budget Committee.

Add in "promises" for future entitlements, the congressman said, and every man, woman and child in America owes $184,000.

The financial situation could also cause the country to lose its ballyhooed AAA bond rating, which would make it more difficult to borrow money.

Borrowing itself brings its share of risks, too, Wolf said, as the nation's largest "bankers" are Japan, China and oil-exporting countries such as Saudi Ara-bia.

"Is it really a good idea to be so indebted to countries like Saudi Arabia, the home of the 9/11 terrorists, and communist China, which is spying on us, where human rights are an after-thought, and Catholic bishops, Protestant ministers and Tibetan monks are jailed for practicing their faith?" Wolf asked in his prepared remarks.

The lawmaker has submitted legislation to create a financial commission for the past three years.

This year, he and Rep. Jim Cooper, a Tennessee Democrat, coauthored legislation to create the Securing America's Future Economy Commission Act.

It would create a bipartisan, 16-member commission to look at all federal spending.

"Everything -- from entitlement spending to tax policy -- would be on the table," Wolf said. "This is the only way to deal with the issue. If we go in saying, 'You can't touch this, you can't do that,' it will not work. Nothing should be pre-judged or pre-conceived."

Sen. Mark R. Warner, a Virginia Democrat who serves on the Budget Committee, agreed.

"That would defeat the purpose from before we'd even get started," the popu-lar former governor said at Tuesday's meeting.

After holding public hearings across the country, SAFE commissioners would develop recom-mendations Congress would be required to vote up or down.

The legislation is modeled after the military base closing process. A bipartisan group of more than 80 House members -- including Rep. Robert J. Wittman, who represents southern Prince William -- have co-sponsored it.

Wolf on Friday also tackled the thorny issue of terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

He sent a letter to President Barack Obama asking the administration to rethink its notion of sending Gitmo detainees back to Yemen, which he termed a "growing haven for al-Qaida."

"These are dangerous individuals," Wolf wrote in his fourth such request since Oct. 1. "To release committed al-Qaida terrorists back to Yemen under these conditions would be an act of gross malfeasance that undermines the safety of the American peo-ple."

The legislator also noted that Yemen is home to radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi, who influ-enced alleged Fort Hood gunman Maj. Nidal Hasan.

"If al-Aulaqi were able to have this impact on a U.S. Army major at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and Fort Hood, what impact will he have on the newly freed detainees in Yemen?" Wolf asked.

Staff writer Jonathan Hunley can be reached at 703-369-5738.