Brad Carson on Budget & Economy Former Democratic Rep (OK-2); 2004 former Senate challenger

Rid waste & fraud and close loopholes to balance the budget

A: First, we have to keep the problem in perspective. As a percentage of our GDP, the budget deficit this year is not what it was in the 1980s and early 1990s. We've had some extraordinary events happen in the recent years, but that's not to say we shouldn't get ourselves back on a path toward fiscal solvency. I release a detailed plan to do just this. We have about $50 billion in various forms of waste, fraud and abuse that prudent management from the Senate and the House and its oversight could eliminate. There are corporate loopholes that are exploited every day to avoid lawful taxation about $250 billion a year. I've also proposed eliminating unnecessary and outdated government agencies, things like the Council on Environmental Quality, the Export-Import Bank. Those proposals, combined with the amount you would save on interest on the national debt with that, would move us probably close to fiscal balance.

Retire half the public debt by 2006.

Blue Dog budget framework
• Set tax and spending priorities within a five year budget framework instead of using ten-year budget projections to allow for backloaded tax cuts or spending increases
• Require all tax or spending initiatives to be fully implemented within the five year budget window
• Retire over half of the publicly held debt by 2006
• Devote one-quarter of the [non-Social Security] surplus to tax cuts retroactive to 2001, for a net tax cut of $180 billion from 2001-2006
• Establish realistic discretionary spending caps which will restrain spending but also provide room to fund new initiatives without relying on unspecified or unrealistic spending.