At the core of every successful society, every moral society is a mature, intelligent, responsible fiscal policy. Waste, excess, corruption, energies and monies misspent; these are all signs of a society in decline, a society without values, without a sense of self, without a sense of honesty, fairness. The abuse of the American social contract, the failure of America as a complete and just society, if it is to fail, will be found from within. And nowhere will it be more obvious than in its fiscal policies. We need to address America’s fiscal order. We need to understand how we got here and what issues we must face in restoring fairness and honesty and social responsibility. It is our moral duty to live up to our founder’s intentions. The first steps are to analyze present spending and excesses and to determine our priorities:

1. Present reality
2. Issues that must be addressed to restore fairness
3. Responsible taxation
4. Arranging priorities

Fiscal responsibility is crucial if we are ever to eliminate our national debt, strengthen our Social Security and modernize Medicare. Irresponsible tax cuts, irresponsible foreign intrigues and wasteful spending have forced us back into deficits. Our government is too big and spends too much. Equally important, it spends foolishly, after subsidizing the wrong things and penalizing the right things. By pursuing our selfish interests, we have often created a beauracracy that has lost the respect but earned the cynicism of the American people.

Blessed with an extraordinary society and an exceptional economy, we have a chance to correct deficit spending, create good jobs, address our Social Security issues, create fair tax laws that are equitable and develop policies that reflect our society’s best values Some of these policies should include: the earned income tax credit; the fixed alternative minimum tax; the encouragement of research and development across a broad spectrum of sciences; repeal of unfair tax laws.

New Priorities.

We must create new priorities for America. We must create new incentives to save, to invest and to consume wisely. Intelligent tax laws create new jobs and new jobs create a stronger economy which in turn creates yet newer tax revenues.It has been shown in the past that one of the most potent means of creating economic vitality, is to lower taxes, not in a corrupt manner that plays to favoritism, but in the creation of new incentives tax cuts that, in the end, create new jobs, a stronger, growing economy and more tax revenues. Lower taxes have been shown to produce economic vitality. The first step is a good budget and ultimately a balanced budget.

We must set priorities for spending.

Priority One is, of course, to protect America, to spend such monies as are necessary to defeat any enemy who would want to cause us harm. Priority Two is to support our armed forces, making sure that they have all the tools to do their job.

Discretionary Spending

This is where our representatives get to decide. This is where we need fiscal discipline and an ongoing analysis of government programs. The elimination of programs that don’t work (a challenge against vested interests) and addressing the thousands of ‘earmarks’ that are attached to bills throughout the year, (special interest spending items that get slipped into bills, mostly at the last minute) In 2005, there were more than 13,000 such ‘earmarks’ 90% of those spending bills never actually make it to the floor of the House or Senate for debate. They are never voted on. They are dropped into ‘committee reports’ and are not even a part of the bill that arrives on the President’s desk. Yet there ‘earmarks’ have to force of law and provide tax dollars for ’special interests’.It is important that Congress reform this process, that we demand that every single appropriation has been reviewed and analyzed and debated. In other words, ‘let the sun shine in’. It’s called ‘transparency’. Our own Congress can do a better job with our money.

Another way of doing a better job would be the introduction of the ‘line item veto’, which would make it very much more difficult to insert special ‘earmarks’ into new bills, and give the President the opportunity to read a bill, line by line, and send back those specific parts of a bill that need readdressing. This in turn would require that Congress work with the President, letting all aspects of a bill to be given the full light of day. Most states now have line item vetoes. Our federal government does not.

Entitlement Programs

This is where discretionary spending begins. It is the job of our representatives in Washington to confront issues as they occur. We just have to be smart and responsible on how we spend this nation’s money. We must be conscious that decisions made in the budget process affect not only our country, but our moral standards. We can meet our priorities; we have the resources to do it. For the sake of our country, it is important that we address entitlement programs of Social Security and Medicare; that we look at the issues, address the deficiencies and see what we can do to be smarter about how we spend our money.Joe Biden’s dad had an expression: “Show me your budget and I’ll show you what you value”. Joe Biden grew up in a middle class neighborhood and learned that if something is really important, you have to find a way to pay for it. That’s why he wants our government to adopt a pay-as-you-go budget. If you want to spend money in one area, you have to pay for it by reducing spending elsewhere, or raising new revenue. It just makes sense.

The war in Iraq is costing this nation in excess of $100 billion a year. Tax cuts for the wealthiest 1%, who make an average of $1.4 million a year, are costing more than $85 billion annually. Joe Biden believes that its time for new priorities. By ending the war, and repealing George Bush’s tax cuts for the top 1% of Americans, we would gain an additional $185 billion in revenue, monies that could be put to far better use investing in education, improving health care, extending tax breaks for college tuition, doubling our investments in new alternative energy technologies, upgrading our neglected infrastructure and improving our homeland security.

Joe Biden is against George Bush’s tax cuts that have resulted in turning a record budget surplus into record budget deficits. Years ago, Biden worked with President Clinton to eradicate an earlier deficit and create 20 million new jobs. That is a fact.

Now Biden believes that we must protect Social sSecurity and he has fought irresponsible Republican attempts to privatize Social Security. President Bush’s excesses in spending for war and tax cuts for the wealthy have brought nothing but grief and heartbreak to our country, replacing good values with absurd materialistic excess.

Joe Biden has voted for tax cuts that have helped millions to escape from poverty, with the earned income tax credit, and Biden would fix the ‘alternative minimum tax’ to provide further relief to millions of middle income Americans. He would encourage innovation and pursue research and development to make America more competitive in the global economy.

Joe Biden has not been afraid to confront oil executives as Senate hearings, asking why they needed the billions in tax cuts that the Republicans gave us in 2005. He has worked consistently to repeal the special subsidies that even oil executives acknowledge they do not need.