The Spending Problem

By Keith Richardson

Keith Richardson believes that government is still too big, taxes are still too high, and spending is out of control.

Our children and grandchildren cannot afford for us to send a politician to Washington with promises of making the system work better for us. We must send a statesman to Congress to fundamentally change the system.

We need courage and true statesmanship in Congress to reform government spending practices. As congressman, Keith Richardson will neither request nor accept unaccountable earmarks for his district, and will support the following principles and initiatives:

• Adopt a Balanced Budget Amendment with an exception for times of war.
• Grant the president line-item veto authority.
• Enforce House of Representatives rules against unauthorized spending.
• Require full disclosure for each earmark request.
• Adopt a three-fifths (60%) supermajority requirement to raise taxes.
• Impose an immediate, one-year moratorium on congressional earmarks.

Limiting government spending has always been a core plan in the Republican Party's tradition and policy platform. Republicans should act now to make our legislative record match our rhetoric.

Quick facts about government spending:

• According to the Americans for Tax Reform, July 11, 2007 was the day when America's workers finish paying for the cost of state, federal and local government. The organization's annual study says families work an average of 192 days per year to comply with costs government assesses on taxpayers.

• Citizens Against Government Waste, a non-partisan watchdog group, deems a spending item wasteful if just two of the following criteria are met: The spending was requested by only one chamber of Congress; It was not specifically authorized; It was not competitively awarded; It was not requested by the President; It greatly exceeds the President's budget request or the previous year's funding; It was not the subject of congressional hearings; It only serves a local or special interest.