Tax Policy

Taxes - I am for permanent tax cuts now with more to follow. We as citizens, you, are much more efficient in your spending and charitable giving than the Federal government. The government is chock full of hard working, conscientious bureaucrats; however, as with any bureaucracy, particularly one with the ability to raise almost unlimited revenues, the Federal government is not as responsive to the stewardship of your money as you would be.

Lower Taxes and Rolling Back Spending

When 'tax cuts only for the rich' cries are put forth, hang on to your wallets, as you will be amazed at how rich Democrats think all of us are. Of course, we give tax cuts to the most affluent of Americans; they are the ones who pay almost all the Federal income taxes. We can't grant tax cuts to those don't pay taxes; we can only give more credits to the percentage of Americans who are not paying any taxes. What the Democrats are really proposing is even more income redistribution in the hope that if we pour more and more money into their failed Great Society social programs, those programs will somehow succeed.

I disagree. I believe in lowering the Federal income tax rates further for all Americans, allowing those who pay taxes to keep more of their money. Every time Congress has been brave enough to implement real tax cuts our presidents have put forth, JFK in the 60's, Ronald Reagan in the 80's, George Bush in 2003, the United States economy has boomed and much to the chagrin of the Democratic naysayers, revenues of the Federal government have exploded. Once could have been a coincidence, twice it looks like a trend, three times is irrefutable evidence that the way to grow Federal revenues is to lower tax rates, allowing we the consumers to drive the economy upward in an efficient manner, overcoming the lowered tax rates with a wave of increased prosperity across the land.

The areas where the prosperity of our economy has not improved the lives of the poor are not because taxes are too low, it is the result of failed government programs which have provided little or no return for our tax dollars invested. It is time to try new approaches to eliminating poverty.

Cutting Deficits

The problem of Federal deficits is not one of too little taxes; it is one of our elected representatives being poor stewards of OUR money! Tough decisions need to be made on where to put our Federal tax dollars.

I favor moving program responsibilities to the state level closer to the folks where we the people have more power and oversight ability, putting in place Federal guidelines or structures for minimum levels of programs states must achieve and then transferring the implementation and fiscal responsibilities to the states where you and I have more influence on our elected representatives. In certain areas, Federal money will have to be provided for the poorer states, so those states can meet the minimum standards. Other than that, the states will raise the money for the programs and run them in the best way they see fit. We will then be able to see solutions that fit each state rather than a one size fits all Federal mandate.

It is time to move more power out of Washington and back to the states, including the fiscal power. Too much money flows through Washington; it is time to move the money closer to the power of the people. The Federal government has the duty and responsibility for fiscal oversight of any programs delegated to the states to ensure the programs are not abused.

So while we will work to move fiscal and implementation responsibilities to the state and local levels, the Federal government will employ the legions of auditors needed to ensure our money is spent for the benefit of us the many not the few of politicians, quasi-governmental agencies and those looking for corporate welfare.

This philosophy will also be needed on the Federally run programs to ensure we are getting our money's worth at the time rather than audits after the fact - think 'Big Dig'. Oversight needs to be ongoing in real time so corrections can be made before the money is gone. As we are finding out now with the horse out of the barn, much of the Federal money for Katrina victim relief went to profiteers rather than the folks. Even when the money went to the folks, a significant percentage was misused. We need to be serious about the accountability of our tax dollars.