Fattah Sets Sights On National Debt

U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah talked about a broad range of initiatives he hopes to spearhead while the 112th Congress is in session during a meeting with media members at Temple University Monday morning.

Fattah, whose 2nd Congressional District covers Roxborough, Manayunk and other Northwest Philly neighborhoods, spent some time talking about his efforts to eliminate flooding on Cresheim Valley Drive in Chestnut Hill and Mt. Airy and discussed some of what he's done in connection with being run by .

He also talked about his recent visits to . But the majority of the session was devoted to what Fattah said is his top priority—a bill called the "Debt Free America Act," which is intended to eliminate the national debt within 10 years.

The bill essentially creates a transaction tax of 1 percent on all retail and financial transactions, except for personal bank account transactions and those involving financial stocks.

The tax would expire after the 10 years.

Fattah said he feels there haven't been many proposals offered that address this issue, and he beat back skeptics that might say this is simply another tax, saying that it is not a national sales tax of sorts.

"I would kind of call it a consumption plus tax, dedicated solely to pay off the debt," the congressman said. "Once the country is debt free, you see the bill itself repeals the income tax and will then set a fee that will take us to revenue neutrality."

The bill has not yet been passed, but Fattah said he's confident it will eventually make its way through the House of Representatives.

Fattah also discussed some of the budget debates going on in Washington right now and talked about Obama's goal for the U.S. to become the top country in the world by 2020 in terms of educating its students. The country is currently ninth.

"It's really a myth that we created that somehow this country is poor," Fattah said. "We are not."

If the country wants to remain a world leader in a variety of categories, it's going to have to spend money, he said. Fattah said he feels his plan will raise money down the road without cutting programs in an excessive manner.

Fattah also addressed programs that provide homeowner assistance—Pennsylvania is being allotted $100 million of the first $1 billion dollars in a federal program being rolled out now, he said.

He said he is working with Radian, a local mortgage insurance company based in Center City, to roll out a Web portal that will allow homeowners with problems to search public or private entities available to help them with foreclosure issues.