E-Newsletter: Common-Sense Budget Principles

Statement

Dear friends,

This week, both the House and the Senate unveiled budget blueprints. They offer starkly different visions for our country's future. The House budget recognizes that our federal government's reckless spending has reached a tipping point, while the Senate budget is a study in blissful ignorance of our fiscal peril. Republicans in Congress have passed a budget that balances every year since we regained control of the House, yet it has been four years since Senate Democrats last bothered to approve a budget. The result of the Senate's refusal to follow the law requiring approval of a budget has sent Congress into a cycle of brinksmanship and artificial crises, and created the expectation that we no longer have to live within our means.

The House Budget Committee has passed the budget introduced by Rep. Paul Ryan, soon giving me the opportunity to consider this proposal -- along with the Senate's version -- on the House floor. President Barack Obama has missed the legal deadline to submit his budget, but it may also receive a floor vote if he submits it in time. For a budget to receive my vote of support, if it comes before the full House for consideration, it must abide by the following common-sense principles:

1) The budget must balance in a timely manner -- like the Republican budget released which balances in 10 years. We must stop spending money -- and stop borrowing 35 to 40 cents of every dollar-- at such an astounding pace. Perhaps no president since Franklin Roosevelt has believed more in public spending to revive our economy than President Obama. As individuals or as families, we understand that we have a limited ability to borrow and spend money. Apparently, the same common sense hasn't applied in Washington, D.C. It's time it does.

2) The budget must repair our social safety nets. Medicare and Social Security will soon be bankrupt, and I will not support a budget that doesn't save these programs from ruin. I believe it's time for the states to be given the opportunity to take greater control of some of their entitlement programs -- like food stamps or Medicaid -- and tailor them to the needs of their populations. Some programs like Medicare should be more personalized to your needs, too. If we add innovations to these existing programs, we will bring down the costs and restore them to fiscal health.

3) The budget must make our tax code simpler and fairer. The Senate budget asks for more taxes -- even though, according to the non-partisan Tax Foundation, a larger share of Americans' incomes already goes to pay taxes than to pay for food, clothing and housing combined. Our convoluted tax code causes productivity to decline as hour after hour is spent trying to comply with a tax code that is ridiculously confusing and complicated. A tax code that is simpler and fairer will create a better climate for individuals and businesses to work and grow. Our tax code should be so simple you could file your taxes on a postcard.

I am determined to fight for our government to live within its means. That is how a responsible country functions and the only way to encourage economic growth. We need to make the hard decisions to balance our budget now -- not later. I refuse to sit back and leave the country with debt, doubt and decline, cutting off this generation's shot at living the American Dream. A budget that balances in a timely manner is a means to this end. I prefer a balanced budget amendment to our Constitution, but until that amendment passes I will only vote to pass a budget out of the House that balances, strengthens Medicare and Social Security and moves us toward a simpler and fairer tax code. When we set our minds to it, no country can encourage economic growth better than us.

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