Issue Position: Eliminate Deficit Spending

Issue Position

The U.S. must balance the budget immediately to foster long-term economic growth. If you select me to represent you in Washington, I will make it my top priority to cut spending by 20% during my first year in office, and I will fight to balance the budget during my first term! Unlike my opponents, I have a detailed plan to reform Social Security, to reduce the long-term costs of Medicare, and to eliminate a plethora of unnecessary government programs. My plan will balance the budget within two years without raising income taxes or adding any new taxes to our burdensome tax system.

Many Republicans in Indiana campaign like Libertarians and vote like Democrats. They promise to fight for a balanced budget, but year after year they are unwilling to make necessary reforms to Social Security and Medicare. They repeatedly vow to not raise taxes, but they willingly pass budget deficits that will increase our taxes in the future. This is intellectually dishonest. How do they get away with blatantly lying in this way? They understand that most voters will take them at their word without crunching the numbers for themselves. In all seriousness, have you ever tried to look at the federal budget for yourself?

Allow me to break down the enacted budget for the 2012 fiscal year on your behalf:

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In order to balance this outrageous budget, Congress has three basic options going forward:

1. Cut Spending by $1.327 Trillion
2. Raise Taxes by $1.327 Trillion
3. Do some combination of spending cuts and tax increases

In my blog article called "The Truth About Taxes", I clearly demonstrated that taxes are already too high. Consequently, I firmly believe we must balance the budget with spending cuts alone. But my proposal will require Congress to reduce expenses by 34.95% within two years. Unfortunately, Republicans and Democrats are terrified of facing reality and making necessary changes to Social Security and Medicare. Even Paul Ryan's plan, which many consider to be aggressive, falls woefully short of addressing our current and long-term deficits. Furthemore, Paul Ryan's "Path to Prosperity" does not produce a balanced budget until the year 2040. In other words, the "fiscally conservative" Republicans are content with running up 28 more years of deficits! I, on the other hand, will not accept such foolishness. We can balance the budget within two years, but in order to do so we must address the "Big 4″ programs today. Let's take a closer look at them:

These four programs represent 64.45% of the total budget. Even if Americans were willing to cut every other federal program except for these four, Congress would only be capable of cutting our spending by 35.55%. As I stated above, we would have to cut spending by 34.95% to balance the budget immediately.

So what does that mean? If Americans want to balance the budget without touching the "Big 4" programs, Congress will have less than 1% of the remaining budget, $22.8 billion to be precise, for every other program including legitimate expenditures like interstate highways and veteran benefits.

So what is the solution to this seemingly unsolvable puzzle? I am glad you asked because I am the only candidate who will answer this question realistically, honestly, and frankly.

I will fight tirelessly to eliminate current and future deficit spending by:

Cutting government spending by 20% in year one and balancing the budget in year two.
Reforming Social Security and Medicare in year one.
Reducing all non-military discretionary spending to Fiscal Year 2006 levels (or lower).
Creating and voting for a "Balanced Budget" amendment to the Constitution.

I challenge you to not take my word for this stuff. Do your own research. Study my specific recommendations by following the links above and feel free to send me your own ideas via email to chard@chardreid.com.

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