Arizona Congressman, Jeff Flake, has not always been the darling of the Republican party, but that’s certainly not due to his fiscal conservative bona fides. Indeed, Flake is one of those rarest of creatures: an honest politician, and this does not always put him in his own party’s good graces.
On issues from earmarks (at his website he spotlights ‘egregious earmarks of the week’) to the Cuban trade embargo which he opposes, Flake often departs from party leadership. Flake has even supported an effort to impose a carbon tax on fossil fuel producers, noting, “The first axiom of economics is if you want less of something, you tax it. Obviously, we want less carbon, so we tax it.”
Now Flake along with Senator John McCain – another avowed enemy of any and all pork barrel spending – has found an earmark he can support. The plan is to take an ax to the $13.1 trillion dollars of federal debt by giving taxpayers the option to set aside 10% of their taxes to go directly to paying down the debt.
Rather than funnel that money into the federal budget to be divided as Congress sees fit, the funds would be legally tied to paying down the increasingly unsustainable levels of debt.
“We simply cannot maintain the level of debt that we expect to carry over the next decade without severe economic consequences,” Flake said in a statement. “If Congress won’t tackle the problem, we ought to let taxpayers do it for us.”
This is smart politics, and quite possibly the best idea John McCain has had in a while. Chalk that up to Flake, whose commitment to fiscal conservatism runs deep. Keep Flake on your list of conservatives to watch. He’s honest, amicable, and hails from the great state of Arizona. Indeed, Flake’s roots in Goldwater conservatism are obvious.
I think giving taxpayers more choices and more information over where their money is going is key to turning around our current fiscal nightmare. I’d like to see a line-item on check stubs detailing the amount of money that goes to defense spending as well, and more clarity on which taxes are going into Social Security and Medicare.
For now, giving taxpayers the ability to help pay down the debt is a great idea, even if it means side-stepping Congress.
