Giffords Will Fight For Fiscal Responsibility and a Balanced Budget in Washington
Candidate Will Refuse To Accept Pay Raise Until Congress Can Balance Budget
TUCSON - In Congress, Gabrielle Giffords will fight to bring fiscal accountability and a balanced budget back to Washington, D.C.. Former President Bill Clinton’s visit to Tucson today reminds us of a different era when Republicans and Democrats worked together to balance the budget, and this bipartisan effort led to several years of record surpluses.
As a small businesswoman, Giffords has experience making payroll and balancing the books, exactly the kind of experience she needs in Congress. In the Arizona legislature, Giffords worked with Republicans and Democrats to balance the budget every year, a requirement of the Arizona Constitution. Giffords will take these skills and experiences with her to Washington, D.C. to bring fiscal sanity back to our nation’s finances.
Under the current Bush administration and Congressional leadership, America has witnessed the erosion of the Clinton era surpluses, which have instead been replaced by reckless budget deficits. Giffords will collaborate in a bipartisan fashion to help balance our budget and return fiscal responsibility to Washington, D.C.
“Congress irresponsibly turned record surpluses into record deficits as far as the eye can see,” said Giffords. “We need to get our fiscal house in order and balance the budget. I refuse to accept a pay raise until Congress can balance our budget.”
In the Arizona legislature, Giffords worked to pass responsible tax cuts and incentives while ensuring that the budget was balanced. Giffords sponsored the Rural Quality Employment Incentives Act to give tax credits to businesses in our rural areas to promote economic development and create jobs (HB 2612, in 2001), supported the small business investments tax credit to encourage investment in businesses that are in early stages of development (SB 1335, in 2005), and sponsored legislation to increase the tax credit to encourage research and development (SB 1370, in 2004). Giffords also supported legislation to increase the standard deduction for income taxes (HB 2616, in 2001) and supported legislation to cut taxes on members of the military (SB 1027, in 2005 and SCR 1009, in 2005).
