Accountability and a Balanced Budget

Clean up Washington and make it live within its means.

Washington is broken because too many politicians serve their party and donors rather than the people who elected them. I am going to bring the same accountability I brought to every command I led, and I am going to make the federal government live within its means, the way every family here has to.

Cleaning Up Washington

• Enact real term limits: six terms in the House and two in the Senate.

• Ban members of Congress from trading individual stocks so they cannot profit off the offices we lend them.

• Overturn Citizens United and require full transparency for every campaign contribution.

• Restore Congress's constitutional authority over war. The Constitution is clear that Congress declares war, not one person, and I will never rubber-stamp military action Congress has not authorized.

A Balanced Budget

• Stop the 57 percent increase in the defense budget and cut wasteful, obsolete military spending so we can fund priorities here at home.

• Launch a multi-year, department-by-department review to cut redundancy and waste, the way a Republican Congress and a Democratic White House once worked together to balance the budget in 2000.

• Close tax loopholes for the largest corporations and individuals earning more than 10 million dollars a year, which would raise roughly 75 billion dollars annually, much of it to fund hiring credits for small businesses in low-income communities.

• Fight for a Balanced Budget Amendment so Washington stops spending money it does not have.