Fiscal Responsibility
BALANCING THE BUDGET AND ELIMINATING WASTEFUL GOVERNMENT SPENDING
“Fiscal responsibility is a basic duty of the federal government. Cutting wasteful spending and spending taxpayer money wisely must always remain our highest budget priority. An important part of my platform when I first ran for U.S. Senate in 1992 was my 82-point plan to reduce the federal deficit. Fiscal discipline is a strong Wisconsin tradition, one that I am proud to carry on in the Senate.
While we were able to work together – both Democrats and Republicans – to eliminate the federal deficit in the 1990s, the federal budget is once again in the red after years of out-of-control spending. As a member of the Senate Budget Committee, I am continuing to push measures that cut wasteful spending and restore budget discipline so that future generations won’t be saddled with our country’s ever-growing debt. The federal government cannot be irresponsible with your hard-earned tax dollars.”
- Senator Russ Feingold
Continuing Russ’s long history of bringing Wisconsin’s tradition of fiscal discipline to Washington, he is the author of the Control Spending Now Act – a bill consisting of over 40 different proposals aimed at reforming the current budgeting system and putting the government’s fiscal house in order. The Control Spending Now Act will reduce the federal deficit by a half trillion dollars over 10 years by focusing on six separate areas:
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Reforming the Budget and Spending Process - In order for our nation to get back on the road toward fiscal sanity, we must reform the way Congress does business. This portion of Feingold’s legislation targets earmarks, authorizes the President to eliminate wasteful spending with a line-item veto, restores statutory pay-as-you-go requirements, and institutes biennial budgets instead of the current annual budgeting process. All of these reforms have already received bipartisan support.
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Making Congress More Responsible - Russ has followed a few simple rules since he was first elected to the Senate in 1992. First, he doesn’t accept a pay raise during each six-year term in office and returns that money to the Treasury. Second, he returns a portion of his office budget each year to the federal government (approximately $3.2 million to date). Third, he has made it a practice to file all of his campaign FEC reports electronically for as long as that option has been available, saving taxpayer dollars and improving transparency. This portion of Russ’s Control Spending Now Act would make other members of Congress follow his lead in these three areas, saving taxpayers approximately $136.5 million over ten years.
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Stopping Corporate Handouts - Corporate welfare and subsidies to big companies only enlarge the deficit and bring us further away from balanced budgeting. The eight provisions of this portion of the Control Spending Now Act would end the Wall Street (TARP) bail-out, end taxpayer subsidies for private student loan companies and certain exporters, and allow for prescription drug reimportation and other reforms that will bring down health care costs. The bill also forces companies to pay for re-inspections when they fail FDA quality inspections. The total amount taxpayers will save through these initiatives amounts to approximately $392.9 billion over ten years.
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Supporting Family Farmers/Reducing Subsidies for Big Agribusinesses - In order to better support the family farmers who remain the backbone of Wisconsin’s economy and the foundation of our state’s history, Russ’s bill reforms irrigation and crop insurance subsidies, cuts farm subsidies to non-farmers, reduces direct payments to large landowners, and eliminates cotton storage and grazing fee subsidies. By redirecting our priorities to focus on family farmers, we will not only help strengthen Wisconsin agriculture but also help balance the federal budget. These reforms will save taxpayers approximately $9.3 billion over ten years.
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Ending Giveaways of Public Resources - For too long, the government has given away publicly owned resources for free or at dramatically reduced value. Taxpayers should benefit from the use of government resources. Russ’s bill reforms the 1872 law that subsidizes companies that mine hardrock minerals on public lands. It also prevents giveaways of the public spectrum, lowers subsidies associated with administrative costs for oil, gas and geothermal energy production on public lands, reduces aviation subsidies and targets Medicare prescription drug assistance to those who need it most. These provisions will save taxpayers approximately $32.1 billion over ten years.
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Eliminating Unnecessary Spending - Many taxpayer-funded government programs currently in existence have either outlived their usefulness or weren’t wise to begin with. The Control Spending Now Act will delay a lunar mission, and eliminate the unsafe V-22 Osprey and unneeded C-17 cargo plane. The bill also reduces cost overruns and delays on major weapons systems, spending on unneeded defense spare parts, and overpayments to defense contractors. It ends an IRS slush fund, rescinds unspent earmarks, repeals the rail-line relocation program, ends support for the Colombian military, stops wasteful intelligence spending, and last, but not least, eliminates the radio and TV signal the U.S. sends to Cuba that virtually nobody there is able to listen to or watch. These provisions will save taxpayers over $63.5 billion over ten years.
Enforcing Budget Discipline and Balancing Our Nation’s Books – Years of an unbalanced federal budget and out-of-control spending, combined with massive borrowing from nations like China, have made us vulnerable to economic crises like the one we currently face. We need to work through the current problems and get back to tough budget rules that had us producing budget surpluses in the 1990s – rules put in place by Republicans and Democrats working together to balance our nation’s books.
To that end Russ is the lead proponent of what’s referred to as PAYGO, or Pay As You Go. PAYGO simply means that any new entitlement spending or tax cuts must be paid for so that the budget deficit is not increased. Russ tries to follow this rule himself as most of the spending bills he introduces are “offset” or paid for so as not to increase the size of the deficit. This type of fiscally responsible budgeting will help bring us back to budget surpluses.
Russ has also worked for years to reduce and eliminate the number of unauthorized earmarks that make their way through Congress every year. Russ, along with then-Senator Barack Obama (D-IL), was able to get comprehensive ethics reform through the Congress and signed by President Bush that requires greater disclosure of earmarks to the public. He also continues his work with Senator John McCain (R-AZ) to completely eliminate earmarks from the budgeting process. If a project is important enough to be federally funded, it should be able to make it through Congress on a vote by all members, rather than being slipped into an unrelated bill in the middle of the night.
Russ has joined with Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI), also from Janesville, WI, on a line-item veto bill dubbed the “Janesville Line-Item Veto” that would give the president the authority to block wasteful earmarks and improve congressional accountability.
Ending the Automatic Pay Raise for Members of Congress – Most people in Wisconsin and around the country don’t have the ability to give themselves a pay raise each year – and neither should members of Congress. However, currently members’ pay automatically increases every year unless they specifically vote against raising their pay. This sort of upside-down system is what makes the American people skeptical of the political process, and of their elected officials, and Russ is the lead author of legislation that would do away with this automatic pay-raise system.
Senator Feingold does not accept pay raises during his term in office. When Congress votes to raise its pay, or when it receives an automatic cost of living increase, Russ sends his share back to the U.S. Treasury. Russ doesn’t accept a pay raise until the people who hired him, the voters of Wisconsin, vote him one at the ballot box.
Cutting Wasteful Government Spending and Making Current Spending Smarter – With government spending at an all-time high, it’s time to cut out wasteful spending and ensure that the taxpayer dollars the government must spend are spent wisely.
Russ has authored the Efficiency in Government Health Care Spending Act – legislation that authorizes the Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate lower prescription drug prices for Medicare beneficiaries. Currently, under the Medicare Part D program - a program Russ voted against in part because of this issue - the government is unable to negotiate with drug companies and must purchase drugs at whatever rate the drug companies offer them. It’s a practice that simply doesn’t make sense and one that Russ’s legislation would reform.
He also supports legislation authored by Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Carl Levin (D-MI) that would authorize more rounds of military base closings around the country – saving the taxpayers billions of dollars by closing bases that are no longer needed to combat the threats our nation faces.
Russ has introduced legislation to stop the number of political appointees in the executive branch from growing. Between 1980 and 1992, the number of political appointees rose by 17 percent. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that Russ’s bill would save taxpayers $872 million over the next 10 years.
He has also introduced the Purchase Card Waste Discipline Act – legislation that would help ensure better use and understanding of purchase cards allocated to different agencies across the federal government.
Recognition of Senator Feingold’s Work to Enforce Budget Discipline – Russ has been named numerous times to the non-partisan Concord Coalition's "Honor Roll" for his votes to cut the federal deficit. Russ has been named the top "Taxpayer Guardian" in the Senate by Taxpayers for Common Sense, an independent, non-partisan group that monitors the spending of taxpayer money. Russ has also been recognized by the pro-Republican group Club for Growth for his votes to curb wasteful spending.
