Fiscal Responsibility

Posted: June 1, 2023

The United States Government must operate under a budget bound by a reasonable estimate of incoming revenue (taxes, fines, tariffs, etc.); there's no excuse for doing otherwise. Spending money we don't have and can't generate regularly puts the country at risk of defaulting on its debts.

The majority of American families live within their means and expect the Federal Government to do the same.

I'm not saying we shouldn't take on debt, but we should be very careful about when we do (like in emergencies, for example) but only with non-partisan agreement on a plan to pay back that debt on a specific timeline.

President Clinton made hard choices to reduce the deficit (which was only $290 billion in 1992) and succeeded. We need to get back to a balanced budget and stop raising the debt limit instead of implementing strong budgetary controls.

According to the US Treasury, as I write this the Federal Government has already spent $925 billion more than it collected in Fiscal Year 2023. This isn't sustainable.

What's even worse, in a time when we need the most efficient and successful revenue collection possible, the Republican party systematically defunds the IRS. Americans wait months for their tax returns to process or sit on hold with the IRS for hours with questions while Republicans take away funds from the agency. At a minimum we must fully fund the IRS so it can process the tax returns in a timely manner and respond to tax payers promptly.

Removing funding from the IRS as part of debt ceiling negotiations is like cutting back on the staff of the Oxygen processing organization on a space station. You're cutting back on the only thing that's keeping you alive.

The Republican Congress does this so they can protect their biggest donors from the risk of scrutiny from the IRS about their tax returns and reported income. They reduce the IRS staff so much that it can barely keep up with dealing with everyday Americans, so the richest get away with not paying their fair share of taxes.

This has got to stop and I'll make it my goal to do so.