Issue Position: Chard's Budget Proposal

Issue Position

The budget proposed by Representative Paul Ryan and endorsed by most Republicans in the House of Representatives is woefully inadequate of restoring fiscal stability to our nation. In fact, his "Path to Prosperity" will continue to run deficits until the year 2040.

As you may recall from my page entitled Encourage Economic Growth, government deficits are destructive to the long-term prosperity of our nation. Consequently, I believe the Paul Ryan plan should be renamed the "Path to a Lower Standard of Living" or perhaps the "Path to Global Mediocrity".

In contrast, I believe Senator Rand Paul has offered a respectable proposal that promises to balance the budget within 5 years. Rather than reinventing the wheel, I have decided to use Senator Paul's budget as a starting point for my own budget proposal. His proposal takes spending levels back to FY 2008.

Because I believe we must balance the budget during the next session of Congress, I have increased the magnitude of Senator Paul's spending cuts to accelerate the balancing process. My solution will balance the federal budget within two years.

As your representative in Washington, I will battle the two-party system to make significant cuts to federal spending and reassert our Founder's vision of a truly limited government whose primary mandate is to protect our lives, our liberties, and our property. I will release the specific details of my plan after the May 2012 primary election.

In case you are itching for preview, I will tell you this much: Any program or department that the federal government does not have the constitutional power to authorize will be ended immediately (i.e. Department of Education). Furthermore, programs that are inefficient and create moral hazards (i.e. Department of Housing and Urban Development) will also be eliminated without delay.

In addition to eliminating entire departments, I will fight to bring all non-military discretionary spending levels back to at least FY 2006 levels. In some case, I will propose even bigger cuts than that.

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