On Monday, U.S. Senate candidate Katie Britt released a statement expressing her concerns about the growing national debt and offering some ideas about how to address this growing crisis confronting the nation.
“I wholeheartedly believe that the ballooning national debt – which recently crossed the $30 trillion threshold – is an existential crisis for our Republic,” Britt said. “For years, politicians have shaken their fists about deficits and debt, only to do nothing when it came to actually implementing solutions and making tough decisions. Alabamians are wise to this 'all talk, no action' mentality, which is why we need a proven, effective leader who is ready to hit the ground running on Day One to tackle this generational challenge.”
Britt is an attorney and a former President and CEO of the Business Council of Alabama (BCA).
“At the business council, I cut waste, rightsized the organization, and turned an operating deficit into a surplus in a matter of months,” Britt said. “I know what it takes to balance a budget in business and at home, just as all hardworking Alabama families do. We’ve all heard the doomsday warnings about the debt for years, but this time truly is worse than ever. Our country has never before seen this level of rampant spending -- and on this magnitude of existing debt. Democrats in Congress, along with the Biden Administration, are acting like they’re dealing out Monopoly money while paying people to stay at home instead of working.
“The Congressional Budget Office estimates that on the current trajectory, federal public debt will rise to over 200% of our gross domestic product by 2051. This means that we would have to pay seven cents out of every single dollar of the American economy just on interest payments. That’s roughly double what our federal government currently spends on national defense, which should be the top priority of federal spending.”
Britt did offer solutions.
“In the Senate, I will fight to significantly reduce discretionary spending; overhaul runaway welfare spending to ensure we have commonsense safety nets instead of generational dependency programs; and aggressively identify non-defense programs in the budget that can be trimmed, terminated, or transferred to the states,” Britt said. “Additionally, one of the keys to tackling the federal government’s spending addiction is to address the revenue side of the equation first. Only when tax increases are off the table will D.C. politicians ever get to truly reforming government to cost less.”
Britt, who lobbied for the fuel tax increase while at BCA, says that she is not for increasing taxes at the federal level.
“I was proud to be the first to sign the Taxpayer Protection Pledge as a candidate in Alabama’s Senate race,” Britt said. “My pledge is simple: As Alabama’s next U.S. Senator, I will not support any tax increases. The federal government already gets too much of Alabamians’ hard-earned money. I want to put money back in the pockets of Alabama families, who know how to spend it better than the bureaucrats and career politicians in Washington. And, with the Biden Administration’s overreach attaining unprecedented heights, we cannot lose sight of the fact that the power to tax and spend is the key to everything the federal government does.”
Britt claimed that if elected Senator she will introduce her own legislative plan to reverse the corrosive tax-and-spend culture in D.C.
The Britt plan includes:
A constitutional amendment to mandate the federal government balances its budget every year, just as the state of Alabama does. She would also include language requiring a supermajority vote of the House and the Senate to raise taxes.
A bill stripping Congress of its pay unless the budget is balanced. No balanced budget, no paycheck.
A bill eliminating the U.S. Department of Education. Not only does this get rid of bloated bureaucratic spending, but it puts more education power where it belongs: on the local level. This will ultimately strengthen the rights of parents and families and cut harmful federal strings attached to education funding.
A bill to make permanent the individual tax cuts and extend the expanded standard deduction contained in President Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
A pro-growth tax reform bill reducing business tax rates, repealing the Death Tax, and making the expensing of capital assets permanent.
A bill to repeal the state and local tax deduction, which is effectively a federal subsidy to high-tax, blue states that benefits coastal elites to the detriment of Alabama.
A bill to strengthen the rules in the 1974 Budget Act, which has not been followed since 1996.
Introduce companion legislation to the Unauthorized Spending Accountability (USA) Act (H.R. 2056).
“Currently, the federal government spends more than $300 billion annually on programs that are not authorized by Congress to receive funding," Britt said. "The USA Act would restore the American people’s 'power of the purse' by eliminating this unauthorized spending."
Britt said that she also supports Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Kentucky) “Five Penny Plan.
“This budget resolution would see the federal budget balanced in five years by reducing spending off the topline by 5.5 cents per dollar,” Britt said.
Britt is a former chief of staff for retiring U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Alabama).
Lillie Boddie, Katie Britt, Mo Brooks, Karla M. DuPriest, Mike Durant, and Jake Schafer are all running for U.S. Senate in the Republican primary on May 24.
To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email brandon.moseley@1819News.com.
