Issue Position: Deficit Reduction and Budget Reform Act of 2011

Issue Position

On March 2, 2011, I introduced the Deficit Reduction and Budget Reform Act of 2011 that would begin to tackle our nation's ballooning $14 trillion debt by cutting federal spending and reforming the budget process. This legislation offers common-sense solutions and takes meaningful steps to put our country back on the path to fiscal responsibility.

My legislation changes the way Congress spends taxpayer dollars while cutting wasteful government spending by creating a new, permanent Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction. This Committee would propose spending cuts that would receive expedited consideration. This bill also gives the President a new, constitutionally sound, legislative line item veto which will also reduce wasteful spending. My bill would reform the budget process by fixing PAYGO rules to prevent the double-counting of certain revenues and savings, prevent the abuse of "emergency" spending, and by giving the budget the force of law which it currently does not have. It ensures that the Congressional Budget Office is using the most accurate accounting methods and that taxpayers are not being exposed to uncompensated risk. It also creates a new process to prevent the new Community Living Assistance Services and Support (CLASS) Act which the Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee has described as a "Ponzi scheme" from bankrupting our country. Likewise, it ensures that fictional savings in the recently enacted health care bill do not prevent us from reforming Medicare.

It would also move Congress to a biennial budget cycle so that Congress spends less time spending taxpayers' dollars and more time ensuring those dollars are not being wasted. Finally, my bill would reverse the current spending spree in Washington by returning spending for all non-defense, non-veteran, non-homeland security discretionary spending to 2008 levels, adjusted for inflation.

I believe that reducing our dangerous national debt is not something that we can continue to push off onto future generations of Americans. My legislation is a necessary first step toward tackling this debt, reining in Washington's out-of-control spending habits, and reforming our broken budget process.

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