Fiscal ResPonsibility

The total public debt now stands at $11.6 trillion.  Interest payments on the debt cost $452 billion last year, the largest federal spending category after Medicare-Medicaid, Social Security, and national defense.

- Mark Trumbull,  CSMonitor 8/12/2009

Most anybody who's being honest knows we've reached a point where we've got a very dangerous fiscal situation, and it won't fix itself.,

- Maya MacGuineas,  President of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget

Unless we demonstrate a strong committment to fiscal sustainability in the longer term, we will have neither financial stability nor healthy economic growth.,

- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke

.., deficit reduction must be task No. 1 for America.  All the rest we do [ health care reform, climate change ] will amount to very little if our economy collapses under the weight of unprecedented debt.  But time is passing, .., and the world is watching.

- Pete V. Domenici, Former Senator from New Mexico, Senior Fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center

Fiscal discipline is the foundation of all successful governments.

When governments operate within strictly balanced budgets they strengthen the future and secure the nation. Balanced budgets ensure freedom from debt for our children, limit the size of government, and force conservative compromise between political parties.

America's current fiscal situation places the entire nation in jeopardy and threatens our country's  future.  We are near to a crisis that will have consequences which far exceed our current difficulties.  But decisive action now can help.

My goal is a debt-free streamlined government that provides and facilitiates the services we need in the most cost-efficient manner possible.

Fiscal restraint requires a constant recognition that the supply of taxpayer money is limited. I believe the greatest power to improve our country is found within our own families and citizens. When we free people and businesses from the burdens of excessive taxation, they are able to invest in their communities and help others.

I will only vote for balanced budgets which practice fiscal discipline.  I refuse to tax and spend, or to borrow and spend.

I support a Constitutional Amendment to require balanced budgets,  to pay the current debt, and to limit future indebtedness.

- Craig