We must restore Fiscal Responsibility to Washington

We cannot continue to burden our children with debt because of our irresponsible spending. The unprecedented corruption now found in Washington has lead to record deficits for the past three years. We must balance the federal budget. To do this, I will work to eliminate the culture of corruption and fraud, reexamine current spending to match current priorities, and roll back the tax cut for the top two percent of Americans, who got 98% of recent tax cuts.

We must immediately act to address the corruption which is now prevalent in Washington.

Every month we see another example of corruption, where favored corporations receive lucrative contracts, not because of their ability to perform required services, but because of their payments to politicians. We must restore authority to the House Ethics panel, and permit them to properly investigate every complaint. Each complaint should be followed wherever the facts lead, and if criminal activity is uncovered, participants should be prosecuted. Some of the recent activities that have come to light include the $2.4 Million bribery of Congressman “Duke” Cunningham (R-CA) by MZM industries and the criminal prosecution of Jack Abramoff and Tom Delay for fraud, tax evasion, and money laundering.

There are criminal allegations that continue to be investigated relating to the activities of Halliburton, both in Iraq and in response to Hurricane Katrina.

We need additional investigation into the activities of the Lincoln Group, who received $110 Million to plant stories in Iraqi newspapers. For that amount of money, they should have been able to buy several newspapers and a television station. This corruption is just the tip of the iceberg.

This corruption is draining funds away from much needed government functions. We must take immediate action to stop the waste of government funds which has caused government expenditures to increase 33% over the past five years. This corruption is the primary cause of the skyrocketing federal deficit, with the three highest deficits in history occurring over the past three years.

We must also reexamine existing legitimate government spending to ensure that current spending is in line with current priorities. Over time, priorities change. It is important that we reexamine our expenditures to ensure that programs that made sense years ago continue to be important now. Often bureaucratic inertia results in programs that continue on past the time when they have accomplished their purpose. Each program should be reexamined and revalidated, rather than automatically funded each year.

We must roll back the tax cuts for the top two percent of Americans. The tax cuts which gave 98% of the tax cuts to the top two percent of the population were unfair and unwise. We must preserve the tax cuts for the middle class, while continuing reasonable tax reform that benefits working Americans. I support reforming the Alternative Minimum Tax so that it only impacts on top earners, not the middle class. I support permanently eliminating the Marriage Penalty, so that a couple is not subject to additional taxes if they get married. But I do not support giving millions of dollars in tax cuts to the wealthiest in our society, while passing enormous debt on to the children of all citizens. This reckless action is unfair and unwise.

Taken together these reforms will allow us to balance the federal budget. We must act aggressively to eliminate corruption, we must reform government spending, and we must roll back the tax giveaway to the very rich. In combination, these efforts will allow us to bring the federal budget back into balance.