Fiscal Responsibility

Current projections for growth in our federal deficit over the next decade, continuing current government spending levels, will cause $9 trillion in new deficit spending. In addition to saddling our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren with enormous debt, this could have the short term impact of causing a jump in interest rates, and could quite possibly bankrupt our nation.  We simply must reduce the out-of-control spending in Washington.

I support a Constitutional Amendment requiring the U.S. Congress to annually balance our federal budget.  This is possible with sustained economic growth, and did occur with a Republican Congress and Bill Clinton in the White House without raising taxes.  This will however require a discipline that Congress is not accustomed to, and in effect return Adult Supervision to Capitol Hill.  It will require the elimination of earmarks, billions in special projects and bureaucratic spending on wasteful or duplicative federal government programs.  The easiest place to start might be an across the board freeze at current spending levels…with an agency by agency Zero-based budget review to justify any expenditure in the following year’s budget.

Reducing the federal budget will not come without some pain.  Georgia for years benefited from the presence of 14 major military installations representing all branches of service.  The Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) recommended the closure or down-sizing of several of those missions and installations, and the effected communities are still feeling the impact.  That said, we cannot seek more effective and efficient government, with lower taxes and less regulation, without being ready and able to accept a smaller federal government less active and visible in our daily lives.  When I began my service as Senate Floor Leader to Republican Governor Sonny Perdue, he entered office with an initial projected budget deficit of $600-million.  It was not painless, but we made the cuts and that year’s budget, spending within our means as Georgia’s State Constitution already requires.