FISCAL ACCOUNTABILITY

The Republican Party is the party of balanced budgets, limited government and fiscal responsibility. We believe our budget problems were not created because we aren’t taxed enough but because we spend too much. We stand for the wise stewardship and responsible use of the people’s money. We support without exception a two-thirds vote requirement for the passage of state tax increases, tax increases labeled as fees, bonds and the state budget. We are against unfunded federal and state mandates. We believe in living within our means.

For decades the sprawling government bureaucracy has pushed beyond its core functions and increased spending to unsustainable levels. Elected officials have overpromised and overspent. Unless we take dramatic action now, young Americans and their children will inherit an unprecedented legacy of enormous and unsustainable debt, with the interest alone consuming an ever-increasing portion of the country’s wealth.

We acknowledge a responsibility to fellow citizens who cannot take care of themselves. We support reasonable work requirements for welfare recipients who can work, and the termination of welfare benefits for those that can work but refuse to do so. We reject any welfare or social benefits for those who have criminally immigrated into our state or nation.

We recognize that unfunded public employee pension liabilities are currently the greatest threat to the financial security of our economy and government and support moving to a public employee retirement model that more closely mirrors those found in the private sector. We know that government is not equipped to participate, and should not compete, in the free market. Wherever the public’s money can be saved and the level of service increased, we call for the privatizing services now delivered by government.

We reject the unjustified use of rhetoric like “shared responsibility” as justification for an increase of government spending and wrongly expanding the role of government, at the expense of individual responsibility. We oppose massive spending projects drummed up by politicians seeking only to cement their legacy without regard or acknowledgement of the wishes of the people or fiscal accountability. That is why we are staunchly opposed to Obamacare, the Twin Tunnels, and the Bullet Train boondoggle.