Fiscal Responsibility
As a small business owner, I’ve always followed the rule to not spend more than I take in. For the sake of our nation’s future, we must chart a sustainable budget course. Our national debt currently stands at $15.8 trillion, and massive budget deficits add to that total each and every day.
As a small business owner, I’ve always followed the rule to not spend more than I take in. It’s never failed me. For the sake of our nation’s future, we must chart a sustainable budget course. Our national debt currently stands at $15.8 trillion, and massive budget deficits add to that total each and every day. In fact, since President Obama took office, the debt has increased by $4 trillion—more than the amount accrued between 1776 and 1992.
In the House of Representatives we have passed real budget cuts, and passed a plan to address Washington’s spending crisis. With the Senate that has failed to pass a budget or take up dozens of pieces of pro-jobs, fiscally responsible legislation for a vote, and a President that is unwilling to stop adding to the $15.8 trillion national debt, there is a great deal of work that needs to be done.
We simply cannot afford continue on our current trajectory.
Since coming to Washington I have cast numerous votes that reduce spending, starting with a five-percent cut to my own office budget. As we move forward, I will continue to look for every opportunity to get America back on the path to economic growth. The House has put a plan on the table by passing a budget, it’s the only plan that has been put forward and we eagerly await Senate action so that the legislative process can move forward and we can work together to solve the budget challenges facing our country. I call upon the Senate and the President to join us in working from the basic principle that Washington cannot continue to take from the American people and that if it’s not paid for, then it’s irresponsible for government to continue to spend.
I am committed to finding real solutions that make common sense spending cuts and provide spending controls, as well as get government out of the way so that Americans can get back to work. This is about protecting our way of life, restoring confidence, and making sure that our children and grandchildren have their opportunity to pursue the American dream.
The Fiscall Cliff
There has been discussion in Washington and in the media about raising taxes as part of a solution to the fiscal cliff. What I want to know is how that additional revenue would be spent, and how it would solve the spending crisis in this country? Unless legitimate spending cuts and tax reform are part of the solution, and not smoke and mirrors gimmicks, increasing revenue will have no effect on solving the spending crisis and decreasing the size of government. We did not tax ourselves into debt; we spent ourselves there as the size of government doubled over the past decade. Our focus must be growing the economy, not continuing to grow government.
I am hopeful that Republicans and Democrats will come together to pass a bipartisan solution to the fiscal cliff that includes legitimate spending cuts at its core, avoids sequestration, and initiates comprehensive tax reform while preventing one of the largest tax increases on Americans in history from going into effect. With double-digit unemployment still affecting much of the nation, including many areas in Colorado, growing the economy must be a central goal of any solution. I believe a solution that would allow businesses and families the flexibility to succeed by keeping tax rates low and providing economic certainty through responsible spending and tax reforms would help jumpstart economic growth and create jobs, while responsibly addressing the $16.3 trillion national debt.
Cut, Cap and Balance
The House of Representatives has led the charge to find a solution to our nation’s debt crisis from the beginning, passing responsible budgets as well as a plan to Cut, Cap, and Balance spending. In each of these instances, the response from the President and the Senate has been a deafening “no,” without offering any plan of their own in return.
The American people gave us a standard to measure up to; a standard that has forced Congress to confront the debt ceiling and seriously address our country’s spending. With profound consideration of our $15.8 trillion debt, and expanding deficit, I have heeded the call of the people of my district. I support a plan that cuts and caps future spending so that our country may chart a sustainable course, and provides an opportunity for the states to vote on a balanced budget amendment so that the federal government has to do what American families do every day—live within their means.
This plan moves our country in the right direction by cutting and capping future spending, and offering an opportunity for the states to vote on a balanced budget amendment. This is not the end of the debate, but the beginning of a solution.
Spending Cuts
The problem in the U.S. is not revenue, which is supplied by hardworking American families, businesses and job creators. The problem is that Washington continues to spend money that we don’t have. The House and the Senate have rejected the president’s attempts to increase job-killing taxes rather than seriously address spending.
The American people know that deficit reduction begins with reining in spending, and they expect Congress to solve the debt crisis with meaningful cuts that restore fiscal responsibility to our government. I have consistently voted to reduce spending, including proposals that eliminate trillions in spending over the next decade.
Defense Funding and Sequestration
I will always support giving our troops sufficient resources to complete their objectives as safely as possible without interruptions in pay, benefits or services. Some politicians, driven by ideology, want to slash and burn their way through the defense budget, while others treat it as untouchable. Both are misguided. I believe that every federal agency, including the Department of Defense, has inefficiencies and unnecessary programs that should be eliminated. That said, I believe that these reductions need to be made strategically, and not with broad across-the-board cuts that recklessly include programs vital for our national security. I am committed to reducing our federal debt and cutting needless or wasteful programs. I have supported numerous efforts—that do not jeopardize our national security—to get our nation back on a responsible fiscal path and reduce spending with trillions of dollars in cuts.
Targeting Blatant Waste
In 2011, the Bureau of Reclamation sent a survey to solicit local, regional and national input on the societal need to remove four privately owned dams on the Klamath River. The survey was mailed to 11,000 households in California, Oregon and selected households in the rest of the nation. Each of these households received a postcard telling them a survey was coming, and then a large packet with the survey arrived. Each packet included a cover letter, postage-paid return envelope and survey with a $2 bill included to encourage people to respond—totaling $22,000 American taxpayer dollars.
Those who did not respond, but kept the $2 bill anyway, then received a follow-up Federal Express or Priority Mail package. These packages were sent to 1,245 people, out of which 286 responded. Each of these 286 respondents was given $20, which means that $5,720 of additional American taxpayer dollars were spent -– not including the cost of the FedEx or priority mail.
Enticing survey responses with cash incentives to prove a societal need for a project is wrong on so many levels. First and foremost, it’s a blatant waste and abuse of taxpayer dollars. Collecting data this way is disingenuous, and a downright sneaky move by this Administration’s cadre of out-of-touch bureaucrats.
I passed an amendment to the Energy and Water Appropriations bill to prohibit the Bureau of Reclamation and the other agencies covered under this legislation from funding a survey in which money is included or provided for the benefit of the responder. It doesn’t say that federal agencies can’t have public input or send out surveys, which is a necessary process – it simply says no more giving away taxpayer dollars.
I plan to pursue additional legislative options to ban all federal agencies from including taxpayer dollars in surveys for the benefit of the responder, as well as to continue to search out instances of blatant waste in the federal government.
Eliminating Duplicative Spending
I introduced legislation to create efficiency in the federal grants process, save billions of tax dollars each year from going to duplicative federal grants, and prevent the federal government in some instances from essentially paying twice for the same product or service. Federal agencies within the U.S. government provide approximately $500 billion in federal grants annually to agencies and individuals. Earlier this year, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report on duplication in the federal government grants process. In one case, the GAO stated that since 2005, one federal agency received $30 billion in duplicative grants--$3.9 billion in 2010 alone. The GAO reported that some federal agencies lack a process to coordinate grant applications for their many programs. In the report, the GAO recommends that agencies coordinate and “share information with one another about past and prospective grantees” in order to “better ensure that applicants from certain communities already receiving funds from one program are not then inadvertently awarded funds from another program for the same or similar purposes.” Read more.
Budget Legislation Highlights
- Cut, Cap, and Balance Act of 2011 (H.R. 2560)
- Budget for Fiscal Year 2013 (H.Con.Res. 112)
- H.AMDT.1211 to H.R.5325 Amendment prohibits the use of funds to be used to conduct a survey in which money is included or provided for the benefit of the responder.