Dear Senator Toomey,

On behalf of more than 1.7 million Americans for Prosperity (AFP) activists in all 50 states, I write to applaud your introduction of a budget to Restore Balance and put the nation’s finances on a sustainable path. Your budget joins a growing chorus of voices that seek to reestablish a pro-growth America that will result in more jobs, higher wages and more tax revenues.

Several of your budget proposals offer commonsense solutions for the country’s runaway deficits. The nation’s fiscal troubles will not be solved through austerity and cutting spending alone. We must restore a pro-growth economic environment that will catapult us out of this recession. A major overhaul of the federal tax code is one important element of restoring a pro-growth climate. By lowering compliance costs, stripping away distortionary rules that benefit special interests and lowering the overall rate, your proposed tax reform will spur economic activity, create jobs and drive higher economic output and, as a result, more government revenue.

AFP believes the dynamic scoring methodology you use is far more accurate than the flawed Joint Committee on Taxation model, and urges Congress to adopt a scoring model that is more accurate and less biased towards higher taxes and spending.

Additionally, AFP strongly supports your proposal to block grant federal welfare programs, including Medicaid. I would encourage you to include the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP) and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The nation is best served when elected officials closest to constituents make decisions; welfare spending is a perfect example of that principle. Medicaid is crushing state budgets and its entitlement nature is dragging the federal budget down as well. Block granting welfare programs allows legislatures to make decisions that work in their state while simultaneously empowering states to care for the neediest in society and free budgets from the restrictive hand of the federal government.

However, I also recognized at least one area of concern. I was disappointed to note that your budget does not repeal the death tax. This tax is one of the most hated in the U.S. tax code and significant majorities of Americans believe it should be repealed. The death tax has never been a tool designed to raise revenue for the federal government; it has always been a way to conduct social policy by trying to break up family inheritances. The death tax inflicts double and triple taxation that endangers family businesses and incentivizes tax-avoidance strategies.

Americans for Prosperity is proud to support your proposed budget and I look forward to working with you in the future.
Sincerely,

James Valvo
Director of Government Affairs
Americans for Prosperity