Issue Position: The National Debt: 23 Trillion Reasons We Need Liz

Issue Position

The National Debt just exceeded $23,000,000,000,000. You read that correctly. The United States is $23 trillion in debt. And it is rising by nearly $1 trillion each year. To put this in further perspective, each year, the United States must currently pay $490 billion (10% of our entire budget) on the interest alone. Imagine for a moment how $490 billion could be spent on other programs for the benefit of the Country. Thus, it is clear that the National Debt is one of the most important issues we face. And it's one of the primary reasons that I'm running for Congress.

You may recall that leading up to the last presidential election, the National Debt became a central talking point for Donald Trump and conservative media outlets. President Trump promised to "run the country like a business" and tackle our debt.

Having spent nearly 20 years in working in accounting, I quickly realized that President Trump and the Republicans had no interest in running the country like a business. Instead, they're running it as their own personal Ponzi scheme.

Upon winning the White House, the Republican's first order of business was to slash tax rates for their ultra wealthy friends and donors. This, of course, led to a decline in revenues, which only further increased the debt. And the their justification for the disproportionate tax cut for the rich is hogwash.

The Republicans claim that the wealthy need the bulk of the tax cuts so that they can re-invest in the economy. Of course, this position ignores the fact that any tax break to the middle and lower income Americans will immediately go back into the economy. But giving a tax cut to someone who already has millions in the bank will do nothing to spur the economy. That certainly explains why immediately after the tax cut was passed by the Republican House and signed by the president, the Republicans received a $500,000 thank you from the Koch Brothers.

I recently read an article discussing the need for more Accounting professionals in Congress. Accounting professionals will not be so easily fooled by the Republicans' Ponzi scheme and would help to address the fiscal woes we now face.

Year after year, we run a budget deficit, running up the debt even higher. We cannot continue to spend more than we take in. In Congress, following standard accounting principles I've learned through experience and my education, I really will tackle the debt as a business would do. We cannot continue to spend more than we take in, and must generate revenues we can use to begin paying down the debt. We accomplish this by keeping the tax cuts for the middle and working classes, but amending the tax code and adjusting the marginal tax rates and capital gains rates to capture revenues that are now being lost due to the Republicans' needless tax cuts for the wealthy. We must also find ways to operate the government more efficiently and cutting spending in any areas that we can.

Additionally, as any responsible business owner would do, it is time to invest in our country. To do so, I will vote to authorize spending on improvements to infrastructure in TX-8 and throughout the country. This will not only give us much needed upgrades to our infrastructure, but it will also work to create jobs, lowering unemployment and generating revenues to the country and stimulating the economy--all of which work toward paying down our debt.

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