FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY

Corporations or households aren't exempt from the basic rules of accounting and finance, and governments shouldn't be, either. While it's true governments are not the same as households, and they will almost always carry some debt because of the way public budgeting works, as a matter of basic principle -- not to mention prudence -- government revenues and expenditures should match, excessive debt should be avoided, and a reserve fund should be maintained.

Proposals:

• Deficit spending is truly acceptable only in times of economic crisis, natural disaster or war. Government should pay as it goes to the greatest extent possible.

• Practices such as unfunded mandates are simply unacceptable. Mandated programs should be legislatively required to be funded by the mandating authority.   

• Government should be held in a fiduciary trust for the people who fund it: the taxpayers. To ensure that trust is maintained, budgets should be much easier to understand and public summaries should be provided to demonstrate clearly where revenues are raised and expenditures are made. 

• Our Constitution empowers the government to "provide for the general welfare," not the welfare of specific groups who have either political or financial clout. Legislators should be required to log and publicly disclose all lobbyist contacts on a regular basis.

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The Modern Whig Institute is a 501(c)(3) civic research and education foundation dedicated to the fundamental American principles of representative government, ordered liberty, capitalism, due process and the rule of law.