‘Your First Budget’: Paul on Budget Balance

Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul reiterated his support for balancing the budget in five years in a recent Your First Budget interview.

“I don’t think we can continue to incur so much debt,” said Paul, a U.S. Senator from Kentucky.

During the interview, Paul advocated a constitutional amendment to balance the budget and pointed to budgets he had proposed in the Senate that would balance in five years.

“We can only spend what comes in,” he said.

Paul says he would gradually raise the full retirement age for Social Security to 70 and means-test benefits for individuals with incomes over $100,000.

The senator has proposed large tax cuts, getting rid of the current tax code and replacing it with a flat tax on business and personal income. Paul says deep spending cuts, including the elimination of several federal departments, could ensure that deficits would not rise.

The Your First Budget series is sponsored by First Budget — an initiative of The Concord Coalition and Fix the Debt — with MC22, a news network serving communities in several Midwestern states, including Iowa.

External links:
Your First Budget Interviews (Videos)