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Budget and Taxes

Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger ran his own business, so he knows what it’s like to make a payroll and meet a budget. As Baltimore County Executive, he was required to submit a balanced budget for eight years and was repeatedly honored for his responsible financial management. Now in Congress, he believes the same common sense principles should be applied to the federal budget. Dutch believes:

The government shouldn’t spend more than it can afford.

Dutch has voted for, and even cosponsored, balanced budget amendments. Now, as our country continues to rebuild, he joined a bipartisan coalition encouraging a minimum $4 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade.

As Ranking Member of the House Intelligence Committee, Dutch worked with the Republican Chairman to cut $1 billion from the budgets of 16 intelligence agencies without affecting their missions by conducting program review and eliminating all unnecessary, wasteful and duplicative spending. Now as an Appropriator, he thinks the same should be done across the federal budget. Priority must be given to job-creating investments, such as infrastructure and cybersecurity.

Sequestration must be replaced with a balanced budget solution.

While Congress recently passed legislation that lifts the across-the-board budget caps known as sequestration for two years, this is only a Band-aid fix. Unless completely repealed, sequestration will continue to have a disproportionate impact here in Maryland, which is home to many federal agencies and contractors that employee thousands of residents.

Bipartisan groups that have looked at our deficit challenge such as Bowles-Simpson have all concluded that we cannot achieve financial stability without a balanced package that includes both tax cuts and new revenues where appropriate. Dutch agrees.

Tax reform should be addressed comprehensively.

Dutch supported extending the Bush tax cuts for the vast majority of American households and, more recently, joined 77 other Democrats in voting for a tax extenders bill that includes $650 billion in tax relief for businesses and individuals, including the Earned Income Tax Credit and the American Opportunity Tax Credit. He has sponsored legislation to increase the $1,000 child care tax credit and make it permanent since 2007.

That said, Dutch believes our entire tax code should be updated and simplified comprehensively. We should have lower individual and corporate tax rates and fewer brackets and we should get rid of unfair loopholes and tax breaks for certain industries such as oil and gas companies.

Related Cosponsorships

EACH Act

Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act of 2015

Middle Class Health Benefits Tax Repeal Act of 2015

Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act of 2015

American Opportunity Tax Credit Act of 2015

Child Tax Credit Permanency Act of 2015

PHIT Act

Commuter Parity Act of 2015

Earned Income Tax Credit Improvement and Simplification Act of 2015

Small Business Tax Credit Accessibility Act

Jobs for Heroes Act

Fair BEER Act

Shortline Railroad Rehabilitation and Investment Act of 2015

Small BREW Act

Wounded Warrior Tax Equity Act of 2015