When I ran for Congress, I promised you I would be an independent voice in Congress who would fight to balance the budget and put our fiscal house in order, and I’ve kept my word. At the insistence of moderates like me in both the Democratic and Republican party, the federal government has not only balanced the budget, but now projects a multi-TRILLION dollar surplus. However, the fact remains that while the U.S. government now runs an annual surplus, it still remains trillions of dollars in debt. This means that taxpayer money has to be spent on just paying the interest of this debt, and that is wrong. My agenda for fiscal responsibility is:

• Absolutely protecting and saving Social Security and Medicare by reserving some of the surplus for this purpose,
• Using the majority of the remaining surplus to pay down the debt,
• Providing a deserved targeted tax cut to the people who created the surplus, the American workers.
• Continuing to create budget discipline.

Protect and save Social Security and Medicare. Social Security is a sacred trust, and one we must not break. The current budget surplus provides an opportunity to remedy the future insolvency of these two important programs. We must also reject risky proposals to ‘privatize’ Social Security, which is an underhanded attempt to dismantle one of the government programs that has actually worked.

Pay down the debt. Although I see the issue through the lens of my years on Wall Street, where carrying debt was a significant disadvantage for a company’s stock, I think all of us can agree that when we sit down at the kitchen table to pay bills, we all just know from common sense that paying off debt frees up money down the road. Instead of using the surplus once for huge tax cuts or massive new spending, we should use the majority of it to pay down the debt. Doing so means that every year in the future, we’ll have extra funds for either a tax cut or important investments like education.

Enact a targeted tax cut for working American families. The surplus has been generated by the hard work of the American people, and so I believe that it makes sense to provide targeted tax relief while fitting within the other two priorities outlined above. I have pushed since I was first elected to eliminate the marriage tax, so that married couples do not have to pay more than they would have to if they filed separately. I also support tax breaks for those who buy their own health insurance, raising the Social Security earnings test, increasing the benefits from the Dependent Care tax credit, and making permanent the Research + Development tax credit.

Enforce fiscal discipline. I support and have fought for amending the U.S. Constitution to require a Balanced Budget; the incredible burden that has been placed on our citizens through the wanton government deficit spending of the 1980s should never be allowed to cripple us again. I also helped develop the Budget Enforcement Act of 1997, which enforced fiscal discipline on Congress for entitlement spending, and will continue to look for ways to ensure that our budgetary system mandates fiscal discipline.