Budget

Amended

We shall enact economic and fiscal policies that require fiscal responsibility and accountability from our government.

The Federal government shall be managed within its means, and will not continually run budget deficits.

• Pass a Balanced Budget Amendment.
• Pay down the Federal Debt until the principal balance is zero and American taxpayers no longer have to pay interest on the debt.
• Use any budget surpluses generated to pay down the debt, they should not be used to fund tax reductions nor to fund new programs.
• Eliminate programs that are wasteful, outdated or that do not serve an important national goal.
• End corporate welfare and special interest subsidies.
• Manage mandatory spending programs and government-sponsored enterprises so that they are self-funding.
• Review all programs on a regular basis and always make trust fund reports.
• Remove all trust fund balances from the budget deficit calculations, so that the true size of the federal deficit is made clear to the American people.

Targeted Action Budget Planks

The economic projecting functions of the Office of Management and Budget and the Congressional Budget Office should be merged into the General Accounting Office (GAO). This new division of the GAO will then be solely responsible for producing the economic assumptions necessary for budget deliberations between Congress and the President. The GAO staff charged with this responsibility should be permanent employees, while the director should be a presidential appointee subject to confirmation by the Senate.

A ten-year plan to disband the Department of Housing and Urban Development should be adopted that is linked to a revenue guarantee program for municipalities. The plan should require a binding commitment on the part of cities to restructure local systems of revenue raising to promote employment-creation and the construction and rehabilitation of the city's housing and business infrastructure.

The mission of the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) should be confined to promoting Arts Districts within Federal Enterprise Zones. NEA grants for any uses other than the development of infrastructure, such as performance halls and artists markets, should be discontinued.

The Appalachian Regional Commission should be abolished, but its current level of funding should be retained and transferred into Community Development Block Grant accounts for a period of ten years to bolster the revitalization of America's inner-cities.

Social Service Block Grants should be merged into Community Development Block Grants to reduce the cost of administering the grants and to enhance the capacity of taxpayers to scrutinize their usage.

The Tennessee Valley Authority should be privatized, after which consideration should be given as to the most efficient way to privatize the regional Power Marketing Administrations.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting should be subsidized at a rate equal to 25% of its budget for the previous fiscal year, so that it does not become too reliant on corporate sponsorship and in turn compromise its news coverage.

Entitlements

We shall return fiscal integrity to trust funds such as Social Security, Medicare, government retirements and all programs dealing with future obligations to individual citizens.

Social Security

Amended

• Fulfill the promises and obligations of the old system and ensure that current retirees' benefits are not reduced.
• Phase out the old pay-as-you-go system, and create a new system of private accounts using federally-supervised, individually-controlled investment options.
• Maintain a safety net which insures a minimum pension to those who have met the requirements.
• Require all new entrants to the labor force to join the new system. Those under the current system may join voluntarily.
• Insure the long term solvency of the social security program by forbidding the use of FICA tax revenues for discretionary spending. Social Security Trust Fund surpluses maybe used to establish individually controlled savings accounts.
• Prohibit politicians from including Social Security Trust Fund surpluses in unified budget calculations.
• Educate the American public about Social Security reform to ensure the public understands the issues before enacting any reform.
• Develop a personal savings account plan such as the Hickman/Orlando Social Security Reform Act.

Medicare/Medicaid

• Reduce medical care inflation through pilot-testing of market-based reforms including managed care, medical savings accounts and creation and regulation of private insurance.
• End subsidies for the health care of the wealthy.

Government Retirement

• Bring federal government retirements and benefits in line with private sector.

General Principles

• Remove all trust funds from the budget and demand an individual accounting.

Tax Reform

Amended

• We shall create a new tax system.
• The new system shall be fair and simple.
• The new system shall raise the money needed to pay the nation's constitutionally legitimate bills.
• Analyze, model, and publicly debate the best options. All options should be considered, including tariffs, value-added taxes, and taxes on income, sales, assets, gasoline, and financial transactions.
• Allow voters to provide input on the new system.
• Any future tax increases under the new system must be approved by the people in the next federal election, in order to impose discipline on spending
• Any tax law that benefits a discrete minority shall be subject to strict scrutiny and shall become law only if a compelling interest can be demonstrated.

Ethics

POLITICAL REFORM

• We shall require the highest ethical conduct by all of our government officials.
• Limit gifts, favors and outside sources of income while in office and after leaving.
• Proven unethical behavior must require a recall vote by the constituents.
• All legislation shall be read by the appropriate officials before debates or votes are cast.
• All bills will address one issue only.

Term Limits

• We shall seek to increase citizen participation in political office.
• Request candidate pledge to limit their term of office, regardless of the current laws.
• Institute Term Limits on the House of 3 terms (6 years).
• Institute Term Limits on the Senate of 2 terms (12 years).

Campaign Finance Reform

• We shall reform our electoral, lobbying and campaign practices to ensure that our elected officials owe their allegiance to the people whom they are elected to serve.
• Vigorously enforce all present campaign finance laws.
• We will work with Congress to change the composition of the Federal Elections Commission to include independent and non-partisan representation.
• Campaigns should include free and equal access to the media resources for all qualified candidates.
• TV and radio stations will allocate sufficient time for candidate forums which includes all qualified candidates, or presidential candidates that qualify for matching funds.
• Political Action Committees (PACS) should be outlawed.

Trade&emdash;Policy

• The goals of U.S. trade policies must be to eliminate the U.S. trade deficits which have made the U.S. the world's largest debtor nation and to preserve the capability of the U.S. to manufacture those products which are vital to her economic and military well being.
• Foreign companies selling goods in the U.S. which are manufactured in countries with which we have large trade deficits must pay compensating U.S. taxes.
• The U.S. industrial policy will maintain domestic sources for all vital military and non-military products procured by the U.S. government.
• Foreign companies whose governments subsidize their exports to the U.S. will pay compensating U.S. taxes on good imported to the U.S. for sale.
• Our trade agreements should promote reciprocity.

Amended

Provide a Balanced, Tailored, Trade program that promotes the economic interests and welfare of all our citizens. Safeguards domestic production of vital military resources and equipment, ensures entry of goods which comply with our environmental and product safety standards, provides markets for our domestic small businesses while safeguarding our system of checks and balances.

THE PROGRAM

• Eliminate the large trade deficits that have made us the world's largest debtor nation. Countries conducting unfair trade practices must be required to provide compensating benefits to the U.S. on the import of those products.
• Withdraw from the WTO and develop tailored trade agreements with other nations according to the practices and performance of those countries.
• Nullify the incentive to relocate manufacturing to low wage regions around the world where the market is the U.S. consumer.
• Maintain the ability to manufacture or stockpile all products vital to our national security.
• Advocate a "Buy America" policy that patronizes American made goods. Articles may carry the label "Made in the U.S.A." only when they meet strict requirements for materials content, processing, assembly and packaging. All imported products, including food, are required to bear a label stating Country of Origin.
• Safeguard American employment and labor standards and uphold our ban on the import of the products of child and slave labor.

THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF CONGRESS

• Establish and enforce requirements for our trade agreements that safeguard the American employment and labor standards, consumer health and safety, and environmental protection while preserving a favorable environment for our small and large businesses.
• Periodically review and report to the people, the performance of U.S. trade with respect to the criteria defined above.
• Terminate or require the renegotiation of agreements, remove MFN status, or require penalties where these criteria have not been met.
• Restore the full Constitutional authority of Congress to regulate commerce and thus deter the use of special trade concessions as a tool for diplomacy.
• All International trade agreements that would abridge U.S. laws shall only be considered under the Treaty Provision of the U.S. Constitution requiring a 2/3 vote of the Senate.

THE ROLE OF THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH

• Continually review our trade negotiations and performance to ensure that they remain within the policy boundaries established by the Congress.
• Develop a strong corps of professional trade negotiators who agree to a life time ban on serving as a lobbyist for any domestic or foreign interest.
• Negotiate new tailored trade agreements by entering into bilateral negotiations with existing trading partners to replace GATT, NAFTA and other agreements which violate our criteria. Specifically, the agreement to replace NAFTA must require and be indexed to meaningful improvements in the working standards and wages of Mexican workers and the enforcement of environmental protection measures.

Foreign-Policy

The Reform Party of the United States is committed to a foreign policy based on the principles of consistency, decisiveness, and accountability. We insist on a foreign policy that is proactive rather than reactive, and whose primary purpose is to enhance our country's national security.

Education

• We shall promote an independent, non partisan dialogue to carefully examine and take action on the crucial educational issues that have become dangerously politicized and bureaucratized in the hands of government and the two party system.
• While federal, state and local governments may each have an appropriate role to play in the education system, for instance to ensure equal access to education for all children, the control over education must be returned to the people.
• Convene a panel of experts to produce a 'statement of impact' of various options (for example, vouchers, educational savings accounts and charter schools) on the public school system.
• Americans must have accurate information on these options before changes are made to the public school system that educates 90% of our children.

Health Care

We shall support reform of the health care system that returns control of the system to its patients.

We must return the individual's right to control their own medical and health decisions.

Environment

ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP

We must leave our environment to future generations better than previous generations left it to us. We must promote uses of our environment that can be sustained without diminishing the quality of our environment, without diminishing biodiversity and without diminishing the capacity of our resources to steadily yield human benefits. We support measures that:

• Promote knowledge of and respect for our natural environment;
• Preserve an integrated network of natural areas to preserve our natural heritage and to accommodate compatible human use;
• Encourage practices and promote the development and use of technologies most beneficial and least harmful to our environment; and
• Steadily improve the quality of our air, water and earth.