Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) released a new plan on Monday to balance the federal budget within five years.
The national debt has surpassed $30 trillion — exceeding economic output by 143% and equating to nearly $243,000 in obligations per taxpayer, according to the U.S. Debt Clock. In response, Paul released his “Six Penny Plan” — a five-year course that relies upon cutting six cents for every dollar of federal spending.
“We are now in a situation that a simple penny, two, three, or even a five pennies per-dollar reduction is insufficient to balance our budget. It requires six,” Paul said in a press release. “We cannot keep ignoring this problem at the expense of taxpayers, and my budget will put our nation on track to solve this crisis that Congress created.”
The legislation would produce a $65.8 billion budget surplus by fiscal year 2027, according to Fox Business, which first obtained a copy of the report. The plan calls for cuts across all spending categories except for Social Security; although it does not lay out specifics, it would require members of Congress to deliberate within the framework. Rather than increasing taxes, the framework for federal spending would drop annually after the $5.9 trillion allotted for fiscal year 2023.
Largely because of federal stimulus packages responding to COVID-19 and the lockdown-induced recession, the budget deficit reached $3.1 trillion in 2020 and $2.8 trillion in 2021, U.S. Office of Management and Budget data reveal.
The press release from Paul’s office noted that if Congress had adopted the five-year spending freeze Paul proposed in 2011, the federal budget would be balanced this year. Despite repeatedly offering similar spending freeze and reduction plans, the debt has continued to grow.
“Congress’s refusal to accept the responsibility to act as good stewards of American taxpayer dollars has caused our bleak financial position,” the release said. “Americans everywhere are feeling the effects of historical high inflation and sustaining labor and supply chain issues. Short-term political gains of the past, are in fact causing us harm now. Not to our children and grandchildren off in the future, but to us here today.”
Paul — who carries a reputation as a budget hawk in Congress — annually releases a “Festivus Report” that provides taxpayers with examples of wasteful government spending. The most recent edition includes $11.3 million to tell the people of Vietnam “to stop burning their trash” and more than $465,000 for Reed College to “create a token-based economy where pigeons are taught to gamble with slot machines.”
Much of the spending emerged from COVID-19 stimulus and foreign expenditures. Beyond $36 billion in wasted unemployment payments and $4.3 billion in bad loans from the Paycheck Protection Program, Congress spent $250 million to “build border walls in the Middle East and North Africa” and $179 million for the State Department to “fund green energy programs in Africa.”
More recently, Paul attempted to block the $40 billion Ukraine spending package.
“Reserving the right to object, my oath of office is to the U.S. Constitution, not to any foreign nation,” Paul said. “And no matter how sympathetic the cause, my oath of office is to the national security of the United States of America.”