Charleston, SC – February 27, 2013 – Former Governor Mark Sanford said today that while all Republicans would agree a Balanced Budget Amendment is important to fighting Washington’s overspending, debate on its passage underscores his unique experiences in working to indeed balance budgets. Only Sanford has led the fight for balanced budgets and against deficit spending in both Washington and Columbia and would do so again if elected to Congress.
As governor, Sanford’s administration was successful in eliminating nearly $1 billion in debt and deficits inherited from the prior administration.
Many also remember his taking two piglets, “Pork and Barrel,” into the Statehouse, but fewer remember that it was to draw attention to, and ultimately force repayment of, the final $16 million of a $115 million dollar unconstitutional deficit. At that time many in Columbia told Sanford that he had gotten close enough to eliminating the deficit. His reply was that after nine months of work and negotiation, not paying off this money when they had the chance to do so would forever set precedent on the sanctity of our state’s Balanced Budget requirement. When leaders decided to proceed and spend the money on local pork projects anyway -instead of repaying the unconstitutional deficit, Sanford found “Pork and Barrel” as a way of highlighting the issue. His work ultimately paid off for the taxpayer, and forced the final $16 million to be repaid.
In Congress, Sanford opposed the Republican leadership when they started dipping into the budget surplus to dole out pork projects. At the time he said, “It’s a combination of the politics of surplus and the politics of good times that makes for a disastrous recipe in terms of holding the line on spending.”
Given there are many ways to balance a budget, if elected, Sanford will fight not just for a Balanced Budget Amendment – but one that would set specific roadblocks to hiking taxes over cutting spending as the way of getting there. Republicans in Washington have failed in this regard, most recently in November 2011 when the GOP leadership would not bring a tax limitation version of the Balanced Budget Amendment to the floor.
“Time and time again, Washington kicks the can down the road on spending – and I have seen this theme repeated all too often,” Sanford said. “My time in both Washington and Columbia has been marked by making the tough decisions needed to get our state and nation’s fiscal house in order, and it’s that record and perspective that I would bring back to Congress. I believe that any federal Balanced Budget Amendment must force us to make the tough choices now on reining in spending if we’re going to keep our nation from sliding further into debt.”