Issue Position: Fiscal Responsibility

Issue Position

Mike Quigley has a long history of presenting sound and detailed solutions for the complex fiscal issues. In his time as a Cook County Commissioner, Mike authored eight separate, extensive reports describing how to reinvent County government to be more efficient and effective. His reports proved that the mission of County government could be achieved without tax increases.

Mike fought against the 1% sales tax increase which would eventually be repealed and led the fight against lease, hotel, restaurant and fuel taxes. He was the only Democratic Commissioner to vote against the Cook County Parking Tax in 2000. Year after year, Mike identified questionable expenditures, unrealistic revenue projections, and no-bid contracts, while also proposing alternative solutions to the County's financial and management problems.

Now in his second term in Congress, Mike has focused on reinventing the Federal government. In the months leading up to the recent budget crises, Mike wrote two reports on titled "Reinventing Federal Government." The first report presented methods for accurately assessing the overall fiscal condition of the United States, and the second detailing how to fix it, with 60 concrete recommendations for saving $2 trillion over ten years.

Mike meets regularly with a bipartisan working group of lawmakers seeking real and sustainable solutions to the Federal Governments long term financial needs. He believes that the mission of government matters, and that we must provide federal agencies with the resources to effectively meet that mission, but that all areas of the budget, including the Department of Defense, must be open to targeted and strategic spending cuts to address the deficit.

Source