Dallas – It's time to put families ahead of government. That was the message delivered by House Budget Committee Chairman John Kasich at a National Center for Policy Analysis luncheon at which the Ohio Congressman discussed his newly- released budget proposal.
Kasich's committee approved a $1.72 trillion fiscal budget last week that has created a controversy among Republicans as well as Democrats. That's because Kasich's plan calls for more than three times the tax cuts approved by the Senate in April.
"I have a different vision," Kasich said. "The Federal Government ought to be less important. The family and the individual ought to be more important."
Kasich's budget plan proposes $101 billion in tax reductions to be offset by cuts in federal spending.
Although the amount sounds large, Kasich does not hesitate to point out that his proposal slows the growth in federal spending by about one percent over five years.
"What we're suggesting is that we take one penny of every dollar the federal government was planning to spend and return it to the people," he said. "The federal government is without question the most bloated, inefficient duplicative red-tape organization on the face of the earth."
Kasich's plan would allow surpluses to be used to start paying down the $5.5 trillion national debt. It also calls for using part of the surplus money to create individual retirement accounts for everyone paying the Social Security tax, similar to a private alternative endorsed by the NCPA as a solution to the future Social Security crisis.