Issue Position: Control Government Spending and Lower Deficits

Issue Position

Our first president - George Washington--famously warned against "ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burden which we ourselves ought to bear." It is a moral outrage that we ensure that future generations will pay higher taxes because we refuse to live within our means.

The amount the government will spend on interest on the debt this year alone will be about $250 billion. These are funds that would have been available for anything and everything else.

As a Blue Dog Democrat, I'm proud that this fiscally responsible group has been on the front lines of trying to reverse the destructive course that has run up trillions of dollars in debt over the past seven years. In January 2007, the Blue Dogs demanded that "pay-as-you-go' rules be restored. The end goal--and the basis for our staunch commitment to PAYGO--has always been to balance the budget. Thanks to the "fiscal police' as we're known, the House has passed spending cuts totaling $276 billion over 10 years, as offsets under PAYGO.

Blue Dogs have also called for greater accountability by government agencies on how they spend precious funds. Whether it's reining in out-of-control spending or wasteful spending, I'll keep working to stop the financial harm to Utah's children and generations not yet born.

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