Issue Position: Government Spending/Balanced Budget Amendment

Interview

Our economy faces challenges that are unprecedented in our time. To get our economy and nation on the right track, it will take a bipartisan effort. However, under the Obama administration and the liberal Congress led by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, we now have a federal government and a Congress that is out of control. Our federal government had a projected national debt of 1.2 trillion by the end of 2009. We have seen an unprecedented intervention in the private sector. This is ultimately bad for our economy. Through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), government bailouts of banks and the automotive industry, and a federal budget filled with special projects, that deficit number is predicted to grow to $12.5 trillion by the end of 2019. We need to exercise fiscal restraint. In economic times like we face now, we must realize that we cannot spend our way out of a recession. In fact, spending by the federal government only prolongs the recession and makes recovery take even longer. Most economists agree that over the next several months, we will see inflation grow at an alarming rate. We must stop this careless and wasteful spending now. That's why I support a balanced budget amendment.

I BELIEVE:

- Limited government spending, not more, is the answer to our economic recovery.

- We must reduce the size of the national budget by reducing dependence on entitlement programs.

- The federal government should not be calling the shots in the private sector and has no business owning stakes in American corporations.

- Small businesses and entrepreneurs ought to be rewarded, not punished with higher taxes.

- Policies enacted to stimulate the economy ought to be targeted and temporary.

- Capitalism and free enterprise are foundational American principles.

- The Obama Administration's systematic move toward a European-style of
socialism is bad for America and bad for the 6th District of Kentucky.

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