Making a difference
Rental store owner battles to solve nation’s debt crisis, one politician at a time.
by Kim Phelan
Construction equipment rental center owner Brian Walter is taking on Washington, and both his message and mission are gaining traction.
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Brian Walter, owner of WBC Rental & Lumber, has launched a non-profit dedicated to a bill that would withhold salaries from members of Congress if the legislative branch of government doesn’t pass an annual budget. |
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Brian Walter became friends with former Senator Tom Coburn a few years before the senator passed away – they shared a common concern for the nation’s fiscal health. |
Owner of WBC Rental & Lumber in Kingfisher, Okla., Walter is on a personal, patriotic crusade to save America from fiscal suicide, and his no-nonsense strategy to force members of Congress to simply do their job and pass a budget every year is predicated on one thing every politician dreads: negative publicity.
Walter founded Unity Above Self in America (unityaboveself.com) in 2019 to actively advance ratification of the non-partisan No Budget, No Pay Act (SB 950) as the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Introduced again in the current 117th Congress last April by Republican Senator Mike Braun of Indiana and Democrat Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia and co-sponsored by nine senators so far, the bill states that “Members of Congress may not receive pay after Oct. 1 of any fiscal year in which Congress has not approved a concurrent resolution on the budget and passed the regular appropriations bills, with no provision for retroactive pay.”
Providing information and resources by which to engage the public, Walter’s website explains in video format his nationwide campaign to get the bill enacted as the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by July 4, 2030. Inspired by his friendship with former Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), who authored the 2017 book, “Smashing the DC Monopoly” before his death in 2020, Walter is carrying the baton in a fashion the fiscally conservative Congressman (aka “Dr. No”) endorsed: targeting every single member of the Senate individually with the prospect of bad press––in the form of paid advertising.
“Our effort is all about asking Members of Congress to face the truth, have courage, and make sacrifices for the common good,” said Walter. “I believe Americans have a loss of faith in our government, which is a natural result of elected officials ignoring the important work that needs cooperation between political parties to accomplish. Instead, they focus on pet projects designed to win favor with their base to enhance their own selfish desire to get re-elected. Senator Coburn described this as greed-based motivation leading to corrupt political action leading our nation to collapse.”
Telling their constituents
Walter’s approach is simple, direct, and effective––he reaches out to the staff of a senator and/or representative, one by one, presents the premise and language of the bill and its dire necessity to the nation’s future, asks for their commitment to become a co-sponsor, then closes the pitch with an ultimatum. No matter what, paid TV ads will be run in the politician’s home state, but the message of those ads depends on the response of the senator: (1) become a co-sponsor of No Budget, No Pay, and you’ll be heralded as a hero; (2) ignore or reject the request, and your refusal to support fiscal responsibility will be on full display in front of your constituents. He provides a preview of the ads to their office before publication to drive home the consequence of inaction and to be completely transparent.
Courteous and professional, he nonetheless does not mince his words when he’s in pursuit of a member of Congress’s support. “I know I get pretty direct, but you have to get their attention somehow,” he said.
In one correspondence to a particularly unresponsive staffer, Walter wrote: “I have sent you a kind and polite email. I have called your office on numerous occasions and left messages. You don’t reply to my emails, you don’t return phone calls––what is a person to do? Please don’t be surprised or consider it rude when we begin to run full ads in [state’s name] making it clear that we have tried to reach out to you and that we have gotten no response.”
To date, No Budget, No Pay is co-sponsored by the following senators: Braun (R- IN) and Manchin (D- W.V.), as well as Rick Scott (R- FL), John Barrasso (R- WY), Richard Burr (R- NC), Shelley Moore (R- WV), Joni Ernst (R- IA), Margaret Wood Hassan (D- NH), and Kyrsten Sinema (D- AZ). In the 116th Congress, UASIA secured the co-sponsorship of Frank Lucas, Tom Cole, Markwayne Mullin, Kevin Hern, and Kendra Horn in the U.S. House of Representatives, as well as a co-sponsorship from Jim Inhofe and a private commitment from James Lankford in the U.S. Senate. In 2020, Oklahoma became the only state in the nation whose entire congressional delegation was on record in support of the bill at that time.
Walter, who has no political aspirations and draws no compensation from his non-profit organization, asserts the problem of America’s out-of-control national spending and fiscal death spiral is a moral problem resulting from a broken system. “To change the reckless disregard for common sense regarding our spending, we must change the incentives in Congress,” he said, “from simply getting elected to doing the hard work of coming together to establish priorities and setting a budget.”
“I'm concerned that we as a nation are committing suicide,” Walter added, “and it drives me to want to do something about it, and I know it drive others also.”
Walter is currently being supported by rental store owners in Arizona, Georgia, and Illinois.
Walter can be contacted at unityaboveselfinamerica@gmail.com.
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