Budget and Spending

We need to restore fiscal responsibility in Washington, D.C. The independent Congressional Budget Office has noted several times that our federal spending is unsustainable. I take this issue very seriously and pledge as your Representative to fight to rein in spending, prioritize funding for our military and veterans, eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse, and put entitlement programs on a sustainable path forward.  

Although Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid alone did not create our country’s debt problem, they are the leading drivers of the ever-growing federal deficit. They represent an astounding two-thirds of the national budget, subsequently crowd out other spending priorities. It is vitally important that we tackle entitlement reform to ensure the fiscal solvency of these programs for future generations.

Congress must take responsibility for its fiscal policy decisions. Too often, meaningful reforms addressing our government’s addiction to spending are pushed to the back burner. I’m working to change that. Rising debt hurts our economy. I want budgets that are fiscally responsible, that gets government out of the way of businesses, families, and economic growth. If families across our state have to balance their budgets, the federal government should too. It’s also not fair to our future generations to be burdened reckless spending that takes place now. . I’m committed to responsible budget reforms. Let’s make the budget something we can all be proud of. 

Major Budget Legislation

FY 2018 Budget: Building a Better America

I am proud to have worked with President Trump and my colleagues in the House to help pass the House FY 2018 budget. The Building a Better America budget balances the federal budget within 10 years and puts our government back on a path toward fiscal responsibility – and it does so without raising taxes or imposing crippling austerity measures on the American people. The national debt is already an impediment to greater economic growth and prosperity, and it is ultimately a threat to the financial security of future generations. For our government to continue to mortgage the prosperity of future generations to satisfy an addiction to deficit spending is not only fiscally irresponsible – it is morally wrong. That’s why I’m proud to have supported this budget, which significantly reduces spending and reforms government programs to put us on a sustainable fiscal path.

Balancing the Budget

Building a Better America balances the budget within 10 years by cutting spending, reforming government, and stimulating the economy. This budget achieves $6.5 trillion in total deficit reduction over 10 years and produces a $9 billion surplus in the fiscal year 2027.

Promoting Economic Growth

For the past eight years, the federal government has stifled economic growth. This budget outlines the steps necessary to reverse this trend, prescribing a combination of pro-growth policies including deficit reduction, spending restraint, comprehensive tax reform, welfare reform, health care reform, and regulatory reform to move our federal government away from its Obama-era addiction to wasting the money you work hard to earn. Together, these significant reforms will promote more robust growth over the longer term.

Ensuring a Strong National Defense

As Representative of Colorado’s 5th Congressional District – a district with one of the highest concentrations of veterans in the United States and numerous active military installations– I understand that defending America’s security is the highest priority of the federal government. To that end, I am proud to support this budget because it has robust funding for troop training, equipment, compensation, and improved readiness.

Restoring the Proper Role of State and Local Governments

Building a Better America encourages the innovation and creativity of state and local governments. It calls for returning significant authority to the states, which possess not only the ability but also the will to reform and modernize programs that serve their citizens. Our Founding Fathers never intended the federal government to impose one-size-fits-all “solutions” to the states – they understood that the states, functioning as laboratories of democracy, not the federal government, are where these reforms should happen.

Reforming Government Programs While Improving Accountability

As your representative, I am well aware that every tax dollar collected by the federal government was taken, not earned, from real people working real jobs in the private sector. That’s why it’s important for  Congress to act as responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars – and that’s why at every opportunity Building a Better America reforms government programs and improves accountability, generating better outcomes for Americans.

For additional on the Building a Better America budget:

https://budget.house.gov/budgets/fy18/

Op-Eds

Washington Examiner Op-Ed: CPB needs a breath of fresh air from federal funding

March 13, 2017

Today, this American life includes a daunting national debt. At the moment I type this sentence, the U.S. national debt has reached a whopping $19,971,916,626,805. That total, divided by the number of taxpayers, means that each individual person filing his or her taxes this April owes a prorated share of $166,775. And with Washington's addiction to spending, the national debt will be even higher by the time you finish this article.

In the here and now, American taxpayers deserve a fiscally responsible government, a system that allows states to do more, and that only allocates money to the most essential programs. There are some things that only the federal government can do — defend our nation from attacks, regulate immigration, and supervise commerce between states. Some money must fund necessary functions such as these.

But government waste doesn't serve anybody. The only path to getting our fiscal habits on point involves cutting non-essential government programs — especially those that can afford to stand on their own two feet.

To that end, I have introduced two bills, H.R. 726 and H.R. 727. These bills withdraw all federal funds for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, as well as National Public Radio. H.R. 726 and 727 aren't only a game — they are a good first step towards fiscal responsibility. Together, they cut half a billion dollars in federal spending right off the bat.

At first listen, $455 million might not sound like enough money to make a difference in our $19 trillion debt. But I want to remind people that only in Washington, D.C. (or perhaps on Planet Money), is half a billion dollars considered an insignificant amount. The federal government cannot sustainably fund every pop culture happy hour just for fun. We need to return to responsible federal spending to fulfill our constitutional duties to the American people.

This is not about content, because the Corporation for Public Broadcasting supports many quality programs, some of which I watch and enjoy. The point is that the main recipients of CPB funds are fully capable of standing on their own without an added boost from tax revenue. Both NPR and PBS maintain substantial private revenue sources, and the absence of federal funds will not by any means make them disappear. The private sector has the resources to keep the important programs going without imposing a burden on the taxpayer.

In addition, the purpose for federal funding of CPB is no longer relevant, given the advances in technology. The intent of public broadcasting in the first place was to make telecommunications "available to all citizens of the United States" (47 U.S.C. 396).

Today, over 99 percent of Americans own a TV and over 95 percent have access to the Internet. Government-funded distribution of CPB and NPR does not increase their "availability," since nearly all American homes are embedded with the technology to watch these programs at home or stream them online. To continue to subsidize something that is widely available in the private market is unnecessary and unwise.

Because the House passed a version of my legislation to defund NPR in a previous Congress, I believe this will be a good starting point on the path to a more balanced budget and reduced national debt. We must tackle additional spending even if it means making hard choices. Once we have secured passage of these two bills, ask me another.

What's more, these bills send a strong message to taxpayers that Congress takes their hard-earned dollars seriously. And considering the $70 million added to the national debt since I started typing this article, it's not one moment too soon to cut the invisible from our national budget and get government spending under control.