Issue Position: Spending and Taxation

Issue Position

Job Creation

With more than 8 million jobs lost in America in just the last two years, creating new jobs is top priority. However, unlike the Obama administration and its supporters in the Pelosi Congress, I believe increasing government jobs is the problem, not the answer.

Every worker in the government is paid for by profits earned from workers in the private sector. The unprecedented expansion of government at all levels is creating a new economic bubble -- a government bubble.

We must encourage private sector job growth by creating an economic environment that encourages entrepreneurs to start a company or expand a company. Since nearly all job growth comes from small and medium companies, Congress needs to focus its efforts there, not the further expansion of government jobs.

Congress is doing exactly the opposite to create a positive small business environment. It is raising capital gains tax rates, re-imposing the death tax for privately held business owners, and raising personal tax rates that most small businesses pay. It is making it harder, not easier for consumers to get a credit card -- the most common financing used to start a business. It is pushing for huge increases in regulatory requirements for business -- from tax & trade to government mandated, business paid healthcare, and beyond.

This Washington witch's brew of more government is discouraging people from hiring. Until it changes, the long-term stagnation of our economy will remain.

Taxes - The Power to Tax Is the Power to Destroy

After Arizona suffered massive tax increases in 8 out of 10 years, I ran the campaign to require a 2/3rds vote in the Arizona Legislature before any tax or fee could be increased. I will co-sponsor similar legislation in Congress.

Kill the Death Tax

The phase-out of the death tax will expire at the end of 2010. This is a looming crisis for small business owners, farmers, ranchers and others who heirs may be forced to sell the farm or business in order to pay up to a 55 percent federal estate tax. Imagine the unfairness of one person who dies on December 31 and who is able to pass the family business on to the children and grandchildren intact vs. another person who dies a day later and the children get hit with a bill from the federal government that is so big, the business must be sold to cover it. Besides, the small business owner has already been taxed on the money when they earned it. The death tax is double taxation. End the death tax permanently.

Tax The Spending of Money, Not the Making of Money

Our Founders often quoted from Blackstone's commentaries when they argued against the income tax and made it unconstitutional. "A power over a man's resources is a power over his will." This debate is not just about the rate of the tax or the size of the deficit. It is about the right of a free people to own the fruit of our own labor. Let's not settle for one more tweak, one less schedule, one different loophole, any longer. It is time for the citizens of our great country to insist on a return to a true understanding of liberty and replace the current system with what our Founders intended. Let's institute a fair tax that replaces the income tax with a tax based upon our purchases in the marketplace. We can debate the details, but this principle should prevail.

End the Marriage Penalty

In 2006, I was one of the leaders of the team that successfully ended the marriage penalties that were remaining in Arizona tax laws. The current federal income tax code imposes a penalty on working married couples. In 2001, Congress passed marriage tax penalty relief phased in over several years. All of the changes are set to expire at the end of 2010 hitting married couples with a marriage penalty tax increase in 2011. It is imperative that Congress pass legislation to make this phase-out of the marriage penalty permanent.

Pass the Balanced Budget Amendment -- NOW!

In 1996,Congress came within 1 vote of passing the Balanced Budget Amendment. And now our national debt is out of control, skyrocketing from $6 trillion in 2001 to fast approaching $14 trillion today. Much of the US debt is held by China, Oil Exporting Countries, and Caribbean Banking Centers (largely drug money). This cedes tremendous economic sovereignty to countries and entities that may wish us ill. The only way to ensure a return to fiscal discipline in Congress is to constitutionally require it. On my first day in office, I will co-sponsor the Balanced Budget Amendment, something Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick has refused to do.

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