Taxes, Spending and Jobs

We need to cut taxes, encourage job creation, and put our fiscal house in order.

We need real, fundamental change.  The tax burden on individuals, families, and small businesses is oppressive and should not be increased.  Nassau County's tax burden is one of the highest in the nation.  By reducing tax rates and reforming the tax code, we can bolster entrepreneurship, savings, and investment.  That will create new jobs.

• At a time when unemployment is reaching levels we have not seen in a quarter-century, the last thing we should do is punish those who would create new jobs. 
• Our notoriously complex tax code unnecessarily burdens taxpayers and benefits special interests.  It should be replaced with a simpler, flatter tax code.
• We need to cut the corporate tax rate, which is now the highest in the industrialized world.
  

One of the great ironies of recent times has been the spectacle of politicians railing against overleveraged corporations for following the same kinds of financial practices as the government itself.  Fundamental change means not just lowering spending, but reforming a broken spending process from top to bottom.

• Each of the last two years, Washington spent $1.3 trillion more than it had. 
• This level of deficit spending crowds out consumers looking to buy homes and small businesses looking to create jobs.  Only by reducing deficit spending can we reduce the risk to our currency and provide a stable economic environment to grow investments and create jobs.
• Our national debt has reached historic levels—nearly $16 trillion, much of which is owed to foreign nations. 
• Excessive debt may cause inflation.  We will not reduce debt by creating more debt.
• With near term interest rates at close to 0%, the interest on the current debt is approximately $450 billion.  As rates rise, interest payments will devour an increasing share of federal revenue.
• We need to cap spending or debt at a ratio of GDP more reflective of historical levels of spending.
• We need a moratorium on congressional earmarks.
• A congressional committee should be established to reduce appropriations.
• The 1974 Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act should be amended to increase presidential discretion to curb wasteful spending.
• We must fix our system of entitlements, which faces irreparable damage if we do not act soon.
  
• We cannot put our fiscal house in order without maintaining a sound and stable dollar.

This Congress has abdicated its responsibility to address our government’s chronic spending problems, at a detriment to our standard of living.  Under new leadership, members of the next Congress must change course, or else we will continue mortgaging the next generation’s future.