The Path to Putting Government in Its Proper Place

The Heritage Foundation works every day to build a free and prosperous nation where all Americans have the opportunity to achieve their version of the American dream, reaching their full potential and creating the financial security to provide for themselves, their families, and their communities.

The federal budget is at the
core of our political system. Everything the federal government does, from
taxing, to regulating, to providing services, to protecting our very freedoms,
it does through the federal budget.

Despite promises to the
contrary, however, Congress continues to pass bills that spend more than the
government takes in each year, adding trillions of dollars of debt and putting
our entire economy in peril. This constant financial mismanagement is
bankrupting the country and robbing future generations of Americans to pay for
it.

This is why The Heritage Foundation produces the “Blueprint for Balance“: to demonstrate to the American people and our elected leaders an approach to the federal budget that reins in out-of-control spending, ensures that the government is funding its constitutionally mandated duties, and provides an environment where our prosperity as individuals and as a country grows.

In the blueprint, Heritage scholars dig deep into the federal budget to offer detailed solutions to reduce federal spending and eventually bring the annual budget into balance. They identify where there is waste, duplication of services, and fraud. They separate proper functions of the federal government, such as providing for our national defense and national infrastructure, from those areas where government has overstepped its bounds.

Our nation thrives most when
the federal government is focused on core national priorities while states and
localities are empowered to address issues that are closest to the people who
will be affected by those policies.

Additionally, the tax reform
and deregulation of the past few years have brought tremendous economic
gains-especially for lower-income Americans. Unemployment is the lowest it has
been in 50 years, and wages for the lowest-income workers are growing faster
than wages of any other level.

The blueprint paves the way to cement these successful policies to ensure that all Americans, including lower-wage workers, young people, women, minorities, and individuals with disabilities, will continue to share in the prosperity of a healthy economy.

Recognizing that America
will be strong only if she is on financially sound footing, our experts
recommend important reforms to the biggest government programs in the budget,
from Social Security to health care, to protect the most vulnerable, deliver
better services at lower cost, and return control of personal decisions from
the Washington bureaucracy to the American people.

Finally, we believe that
Washington should work as the rest of us do: When our income goes up, our
spending can too, and when our income shrinks, we have to make do with less.

The total amount the federal
government spends in a given year should be directly linked by law to a fixed
percentage of the nation’s wealth: our gross domestic product. The only way the
government could spend more is if the economy grew faster than government
spending over the long run.

Such a rule should be smart,
allowing for deficits during an economic downturn and ensuring that the
government has to cut back on spending when the private sector is strong.

These and many other ideas for bringing fiscal restraint to Washington are presented in great detail in this book. “Blueprint for Balance” presents Heritage’s extensive research that, when implemented, can lead to a freer, more prosperous America with opportunity for all.

It’s not too late to save
the incredible promise that is America, but first, we have to get our leaders
to make economic growth, job creation, and an end to runaway spending and debt
their highest priorities.

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