Fiscal Responsibility

It is time to put our nation’s fiscal house in order and change the way we do business in Washington. We cannot hope to achieve long-term economic growth and prosperity in the face of a crushing debt and deficits. We must restore fiscal responsibility, transparency, and accountability to our government.

 

Background

I have personal experience working for organizations facing financial problems. As Managing Director of Anschutz Investment Corporation, I was responsible for reorganizing distressed companies so that they were profitable again. While serving as Mayor Hickenlooper’s Chief of Staff, I helped the Mayor define and face a $70 million dollar budget deficit. And, while I served as Superintendent of Denver Public Schools, we were able to find innovative ways to approach the District’s budget after years of cuts so that—for the first time in 2008—we did not have to cut any spending on schools and other vital educational programs. These experiences taught me that financial problems are only fixable when the parties involved are transparent about the extent of the problem, honest in their analysis of the size of their debt, and open to changes that will put the organization on sound fiscal footing.

 

Facing our Fiscal Problems

We have had eight years of record-breaking tax cuts without regard for whether we could afford them. We spent hundreds of billions of dollars on the Iraq War, while it was essential that we finance a war we had to win in Afghanistan. We took no action to stop health care costs from eating up an increasingly enormous share of the GDP and federal budget, and we ignored the fundamental problems with our economy, financial systems, and housing markets.

After eight years, the national debt has doubled, enormous budget deficits have become the norm, and we are facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

In the face of these challenges, we have a serious decision to make. We can do things the old way, continue to do that which is politically popular, and ignore our fiscal problems. Or, we can decide that this is the year that we stop pushing the tough decisions off onto the next generation, and that we start making a serious and bipartisan effort to fix this fiscal mess.

We must take responsibility for leaving this country in sound fiscal shape for our children. I believe that means we must attack our budget problems in two ways. First, we must do what is necessary to spark economic recovery. Second, we need to take a serious look at both the way we approach federal spending and at reducing the costs of programs already included in the federal budget.

 

Sparking Economic Recovery

Our fiscal solvency is dependent on our economic recovery. We will not be able to eliminate our budget deficit with a shrinking tax base, and we cannot pay off our national debt until our economy starts to grow again. As a result, our first priority must be to invest in those programs—education, renewable energy, and health care—that we know will provide for stable economic growth in the future. Though it may seem counterintuitive, I believe our future fiscal stability depends on our willingness to spend the money necessary to get our economy moving in the right direction again.

 

Change the Way We Approach Federal Spending

The next step is to change the way we approach federal spending.  We should demand that the federal government work transparently, make decisions based on accurate information, and figure out how to pay for what it spends. The FY 2010 budget was a good first step toward accomplishing these goals.  For the first time since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began, the budget accounts for the money we are spending in those conflicts.

We still have more work to do.  Both the House and Senate are now required to find a way to pay for most new spending programs or tax cuts.  I believe that these rules could be stronger so that Congress, just like every Colorado family, is required to figure out how to pay for what it spends.

Transparency must be improved by every Member of Congress and throughout the system as a whole.  I have taken steps to improve transparency in my Senate office by making sure all my appropriations requests are publicly available on my website.  Similar steps should be taken throughout the federal government so that taxpayers know how their money is being spent, and so that it is easy to find the wasteful and unnecessary spending we need to eliminate.

 

Cutting Spending Through Health Care Reform

Changing the way we approach the federal budget is not going to be enough to eliminate the deficit or get our country on the right track. It is time that we work together to cut spending from the federal budget.

We must address the problem of high health care costs. The United States spent approximately $2.2 trillion on health care in 2007, which was equal to about 16.2 percent of our GDP. According to the Congressional Budget Office, federal spending on Medicare and Medicaid alone will increase to 19 percent of our GDP in 2082. If we are going to achieve fiscal sustainability then we must find a way to stop increasing health care costs and lower the percentage that those costs take out of the federal budget. That is why I support comprehensive health care reform that addresses the rising costs of health care this year.

 

Entitlement Reform

We also need to take a serious look at reforming our entitlement programs. Social Security is our most successful retirement program and it provides the only path to a secure retirement for millions of Americans. Similarly, Medicare is the only way to get quality health care for many Americans. We must find a way to preserve the integrity of these programs while reducing the increasingly large impact they have on the overall federal budget.

 

Fiscally Smart Tax Policy

Finally, we must engage in a fiscally smart tax policy. We should target tax cuts to those middle class families and small businesses that are struggling the most under the weight of this recession; and to developing industries, like new energy, that have the potential to create jobs and spark real economic growth. At the same time, we must close tax loopholes that serve no purpose and simply allow some institutions to avoid paying their fair share.

None of this will be easy. These problems weren’t created overnight, and they won’t be solved overnight. But for the sake of our children and grandchildren, our nation must now set a course toward fiscal responsibility and accountability.