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The most urgent challenge facing our nation is fixing a federal budget that has, by any reasonable measure, become insane. Each one of us owes over $40,000 in federal debt that no reasonable person would have allowed to grow to its present level.

In this paper I will show:

• How out of control our spending is
• How our debt is jeopardizing our ability to carry out international goals of promoting peace through democracy
• That federal spending isn't growing just to keep up with inflation
• That its growth far exceeds increases in household income
• How dangerously close we are to serious economic catastrophe based on several measures of economic stability.
• That it is the so-called "mandatory" spending items—social spending—that is driving the federal budget

I will conclude by offering six specific common-sense initiatives that need to be pursued—and that I will pursue—to turn us away from politics as usual and to return America to economic strength through a reduced federal government.

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