Federal Debt
We believe: The expanding federal debt is a serious concern that transfers obligations and the payment of interest to our children.
We support:
Enact Smart Spending Reforms
🎯 Objective:
Reduce waste, fraud, and duplication across federal agencies without cutting essential services.
✅ Key Actions:
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Independent Spending Audit: Mandate a bipartisan, third-party audit of all federal agencies to identify inefficiencies.
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Sunset Review Commission: Establish a panel to regularly assess federal programs and phase out those that are outdated or underperforming.
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Procurement Reform: Streamline federal contracting and reduce cost overruns, especially in defense and infrastructure projects.
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Consolidate Duplicative Programs: Merge overlapping initiatives in education, workforce development, and housing.
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Limit Automatic Budget Increases: Cap discretionary program growth to inflation + population growth unless justified by performance.
📘 Modernize and Strengthen the Tax Code
🎯 Objective:
Raise fair revenue from individuals and corporations while closing loopholes and broadening the tax base.
✅ Key Actions:
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Minimum Corporate Tax: Ensure all profitable corporations pay at least a 15% effective tax rate.
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High-Income Surtax: Apply a minimum tax on all incomes above $750,000 to help reduce deficits without impacting the middle class.
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Close Loopholes and Shelters: Eliminate carried interest, offshore income deferrals, and real estate write-off abuses.
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Digital and Wealth Taxes: Explore modest taxes on large digital platform revenues and ultra-high net worth individuals.
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IRS Investment: Fully fund the IRS to improve enforcement and recover unpaid taxes (estimated to exceed $500 billion annually).
📘 Tame Mandatory Spending Growth Without Harm
🎯 Objective:
Control long-term costs in programs like Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid while maintaining core benefits.
✅ Key Actions:
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Drug Price Negotiation: Expand Medicare’s ability to negotiate prescription drug prices to save tens of billions.
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Income-Based Premium Adjustments: Increase Medicare premiums for high-income beneficiaries while protecting low-income seniors.
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Gradual Retirement Age Adjustment: Slowly raise the Social Security retirement age to 68, with exemptions for physical labor occupations.
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Strengthen Disability Fraud Prevention: Improve oversight of SSDI and SSI eligibility determinations.
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Preventive Health Incentives: Invest in wellness and chronic disease prevention to reduce long-term Medicare costs.
📘 Cap and Prioritize Defense and Non-Defense Discretionary Spending
🎯 Objective:
Maintain strong national security and essential services while controlling overall federal outlays.
✅ Key Actions:
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Audit the Pentagon: Require a clean audit of defense spending; eliminate outdated weapons programs and wasteful contracts.
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Smart Defense Modernization: Focus funding on cybersecurity, drone defense, AI, and global threat preparedness—not Cold War-era systems.
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Disaster and Emergency Reform: Pre-fund disaster response based on climate risk modeling to reduce costly emergency bailouts.
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Education and Infrastructure First: Prioritize discretionary spending that boosts long-term growth and revenue.
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Cap Discretionary Spending Growth: Tie annual discretionary budget increases to GDP growth or inflation, with emergency exceptions.
📘 Pass a Long-Term Debt Stabilization Act
🎯 Objective:
Create a credible, enforceable framework to reduce debt as a share of GDP over time.
✅ Key Actions:
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Debt-to-GDP Targets: Commit to reducing the debt-to-GDP ratio to under 90% within 10–15 years through a phased plan.
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Bipartisan Budget Board: Establish an independent body to review fiscal progress and propose automatic adjustments if targets are missed.
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Multi-Year Budgeting: Move toward 2-year or 4-year budget cycles to improve planning and limit short-term political pressures.
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Rainy Day Fund for Surpluses: Automatically allocate budget surpluses to a trust fund for economic downturns and debt paydowns.
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Ban Unfunded Mandates: Require that all new spending legislation be fully offset with spending cuts or new revenue.
TAKE ACTION – Contact Congress
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Congressional Committees That Oversee Federal Financing
U.S. Senate
🔹 Senate Committee on Finance
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Senate counterpart to Ways and Means.
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Jurisdiction includes:
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Taxation, trade, and revenue
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Debt management and entitlement financing
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Oversight of Treasury, IRS, and Social Security/Medicare funding
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🔹 Senate Committee on the Budget
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Similar to the House Budget Committee.
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Drafts budget resolutions, monitors federal debt, and analyzes economic forecasts.
🔹 Senate Committee on Appropriations
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Controls federal spending through appropriations bills.
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Influences federal financing indirectly by determining program-level budgets.
🔹 Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
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Oversees:
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Federal Reserve System
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U.S. financial markets and institutions
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National credit policies and debt instruments
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U.S. House of Representatives
🔹 House Committee on Ways and Means
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Primary tax-writing committee in the House.
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Jurisdiction includes:
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Federal revenue (taxation and tariffs)
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Public debt (via Treasury)
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Social Security and Medicare financing
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Oversight of the IRS and tax code
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🔹 House Committee on the Budget
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Responsible for:
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Drafting the annual congressional budget resolution
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Establishing spending and revenue levels
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Long-term fiscal planning and federal debt oversight
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🔹 House Committee on Appropriations
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Controls discretionary federal spending.
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Divided into subcommittees that allocate funds to federal agencies and programs.
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Does not set tax or entitlement policy, but determines how money is spent.
🔹 House Committee on Financial Services
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Oversees:
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Federal Reserve System
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U.S. Department of the Treasury (financial policy)
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Public and private sector financial markets
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National debt issuance and federal borrowing practices
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