Dear Senator Toomey,

On behalf of more than two million Americans for Prosperity activists in all 50 states, I applaud you for introducing S.Con.Res. 37, your “Restoring Balance” budget resolution for fiscal year 2013. Your budget offers a solid blueprint with a sound approach to reining in Washington’s excesses by cutting spending, reforming broken entitlement programs, and achieving pro-growth tax reform – all of which will help get our country’s economy back on track.

There’s no question that Washington’s fiscal house is in complete disarray: as you rightly point out, government spending is now consuming a larger share of the economy than at any time since World War II, and continuing year after year with trillion-dollar deficits “increases the possibility of another financial crisis” as the public loses faith in the U.S. government. Unless we can accomplish meaningful reform, this will continue to be a serious drag on our economy.

Your budget is up to the task. First, your proposal calls for significant spending cuts to discretionary spending. Non-defense discretionary accounts are cut back to the pre-stimulus, pre-Obama levels last seen in FY 2006, and frozen there until you balance the federal budget in FY 2020. Moreover, the slipshod sequestration cuts to Defense are averted and replaced with targeted cuts elsewhere in the discretionary budget. This is a commonsense way to roll back some of the unprecedented spending hikes that occurred almost every year from 2000-2010.

Second, on the mandatory spending side, your budget proposes sensible reforms for two of the biggest drivers of Washington’s spending problem: ballooning health care costs and outdated welfare programs. A premium support model is adopted for Medicare to preserve seniors’ coverage choices and put the program back on a sustainable fiscal path. Medicaid and other welfare programs are block granted to the states to provide state officials with the flexibility and strong incentives to improve services for the needy and spend tax dollars wisely. Most importantly, your bill repeals the President’s onerous new health care law completely.

Finally, your budget contains several smart proposals for tax reform. For both individual and corporate taxes, several tax deductions, credits, and exemptions are eliminated, but this broader tax base is used to lower overall rates. For individuals, the rates for all tax brackets are reduced by 20 percent (i.e. the top rate is lowered from 35 to 28 percent). For corporations, the statutory rate is reduced from its current 35 percent (the highest in the world) to just 25 percent. Allowing individuals and businesses to keep more of their hard-earned money will undoubtedly help put America back on the path of robust economic growth. You also move to a territorial tax system so that businesses can bring profits earned overseas back to the U.S. to invest and create jobs without an additional tax penalty.

While there are indeed several elements to praise, I would be remiss to ignore two glaring omissions. First, instead of repealing the death tax entirely, your budget maintains the current high-tax policy. The death tax has never been a significant source of federal revenue, but it does play a big role in discouraging saving in the economy and shackling small businesses and family farms. Second, your budget is silent on Social Security reform at a time when the program’s own actuaries have predicted it will run out of money by 2033 – three years earlier than they predicted just last year. Reforming the program to include optional personal savings accounts would put Social Security back on a fiscally-sustainable path and offer a better deal for workers in retirement.

Americans for Prosperity is proud to support S.Con.Res. 37, your “Restoring Balance” budget resolution for fiscal year 2013. I urge your colleagues to support its passage, and I look forward to working with you in the future.

Sincerely,

James Valvo
Director of Policy
Americans for Prosperity

Legal Disclaimer:

EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.