>A Real Plan for a Balanced Budget
Garrett speaks on House floor in support of RSC budget .
I find it troubling that our country’s budget crisis is so out of control that the notion of a balanced budget has become a novel idea in Washington, DC, something many of my colleagues on both sides of Capitol Hill view as the impossible dream. To address this misconception, my colleagues and I at the the Republican Study Committee (RSC) have stood up again this year to prove once and for all fiscal sanity is not out of reach—we introduced a budget that balances by 2017 without raising taxes.
The RSC’s budget, Cut, Cap and Balance: A Fiscal Year 2013 Budget, which I authored and introduced as the Budget and Spending Task Force Chairman for the RSC, is the most fiscally conservative budget proposal introduced in the House this year. While it builds on many of the ideas in Chairman Ryan’s plan, we wanted to go further to ensure it will actually balance within our lifetimes. Our primary focus was adhering to a number of common-sense principles we should require of our national budget:
Our national budget should balance within ten years without raising any taxes.
The RSC plan balances the federal budget in 2017.
Our national budget should strengthen Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security to ensure their long-term sustainability.
The RSC plan makes common-sense reforms to strengthen Medicare and Medicaid by offering increased choices and improved services, and saves Social Security by strengthening the program’s bank account. There are no changes for seniors currently 55 years and older.
Our national budget should reduce spending and trim down the size of the federal government to make it more effective and efficient.
The RSC plan cuts agency spending below 2008 levels and gets government out of the way so America’s businesses have the ability to grow and create jobs.
Our national budget should terminate federal programs that are unconstitutional, duplicative, or harmful.
The RSC plan does what American families across the country have been required to do in these tough economic times.
Our national budget should prohibit earmarks.
The RSC plan prohibits earmarks and eliminates pork-barrel spending.
Our national budget should embrace reforms that make it is easier to reduce spending than it is to increase it.
The RSC plan puts fair rules in place to prevent out-of-control Washington spending that stifles private-sector job creation.
Our national budget should keep taxes low and include pro-jobs tax reform.
The RSC plan prevents tax increases, repeals ObamaCare tax hikes, keeps the tax burden at its historic average, and makes the tax code simpler, flatter, and fairer.
Fiscal discipline is still within our grasp, but our window to take action grows smaller by the day. Our enormous national debt and skyrocketing budget deficits were not created overnight, but the responsibility to fix the problem has fallen at our feet.
Through my dual roles as Vice Chairman of the House Budget Committee and Chairman of the RSC Budget and Spending Task Force, I will never stop fighting to bring spending sanity to Washington, DC.
Sincerely,
Scott Garrett
