Budget and Fiscal Responsibility

Congress must come together with a bipartisan effort to find a long-term budget solution that reduces our deficit and grows our economy. This means taking a balanced approach to craft a responsible plan that cuts wasteful spending and invests in the programs that help working families, create jobs, and put our economy back on the right track.

A long-term budget must protect the promise of Social Security and Medicare, support the development of a competitive American workforce, encourage job creation and support an economy that works for everyone. To meet this goal, we should be making strategic investments in areas like education, research, clean energy, and infrastructure built for the 21st century.  Our tax system needs to provide relief for the middle class, and encourage businesses to grow and invest here in America, not ship jobs overseas.

Businesses and working families also need certainty to plan and invest for the future. It’s time to stop budgeting from one manufactured crisis to the next, and work on bipartisan compromises that will set the country on the right course for the future. Short-term, crisis-driven legislating is the most expensive and least efficient way to budget. But make no mistake; the difficult budget problems we face require innovative thinking. That’s why I’m working with my colleagues to craft new solutions that will provide us a great return on investment.

The 2014 Farm Bill, which reduced the deficit by billions of dollars, included my $200 million job-training pilot program. This program is a prime example of how investing a little money in a targeted way can save the government money in the long run by giving people the tools they need to become self-sufficient. I believe that strong economic growth can be achieved only when every American has the opportunity to succeed.