Issue Position: Budget & Economy

Issue Position

I do not like debt; I hate it with a passion and it makes me feel uncomfortable. There is no legitimate reason why a government cannot stay within its budget; there is also no legitimate reason why a government should have a deficit. Governments should not need to borrow anything; instead, they should have some emergency reserves which earn interest and thereby reduce the amount that must be raised through taxes.

The economy is one of our biggest concerns at this time. As I mentioned, though, free trade is the cause of the problem, not the solution to it.

Although the actual solution to the problem must be achieved on the federal level, my three-point plan attempts to address as much of this problem as possible on the state level.

A second cause of economic problems is the fluctuation on Wall Street. Although little can be done at the state level to control this fluctuation, it could be greatly reduced by a federal ban on stock options and a tax on the transfer of stocks (maybe a 10% fee). This would seriously hurt the schemes of day traders who like to make the market plunge and soar in rapid succession; it would also pressure individuals who buy stocks to hold them as long-term investments. This change would also pressure corporations to think long-term instead of solely short-term.

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