Issue Position: Federal Spending

Issue Position

Mac believes that the federal government should be required to balance its budget, just as millions of American families have to do. He supports a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution.

He believes there must be priorities in federal spending so that if extra spending is required for a particular purpose, other, lower-priority spending must be reduced. He is a cosponsor of a federal sunset proposal that would terminate every federal program after a certain period of time and require that Congress reauthorize it. He supports tools, such as a line-item veto, which can help reduce wasteful spending.

Mac believes that Members of Congress from both parties have abused congressionally-directed earmarks and that there should be a moratorium on earmarks until a new, transparent system of accountability can be implemented.

In addition, he is concerned about the tremendous growth of automatic spending programs -- entitlements -- which currently make up about half of all federal spending and are growing at an alarming rate. He has cosponsored a bill to establish a bipartisan commission on entitlements that would report is recommendations back to Congress for an up or down vote.

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