“ The national debt now exceeds the gross domestic product of our entire country. Congress should be looking to cut spending across the board, but here are a few specific places to start. I would vote to cut corporate welfare, including agricultural subsidies that will cost the country more than $20 billion next year. The market should decide winners and losers – not the government. I would also vote to stop thousands of ridiculous grants and earmarks that add up to billions of dollars in waste. The very first project I would eliminate is the New Britain-to-Hartford “Busway”. This boondoggle is expected to cost $1,000 per inch to build. I would fight just as hard to end other insane projects, like $700,000 to study the impact of televisions and gas generators in Vietnamese villages, or $1.35 million for an “entrepreneurship initiative” in Barbados, or $50,000 for a National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada, or $75,000 to promote awareness about Michigan’s role in producing Christmas trees. The politicians need to lead by example when it comes to cutting government. I didn’t mind being the only member of a statewide commission to vote to give Connecticut politicians a 10% reduction in pay. I won’t mind doing the same in Congress. I will introduce legislation to cut the pay of all members of Congress and to eliminate the pension system that allows them to begin collect benefits after just six years of service. I believe in leading by example, so I will take these steps personally even if they aren’t made into law. We shouldn’t pay for politicians to party, either. That’s why I would vote to eliminate $35 million that has been allocated for the Republican and Democratic Party conventions in 2012! ”

“ 1. The federal Department of Energy. The United States needs to achieve long-term, permanent energy independence by expanding our proven domestic energy sources. If we drill or expand drilling in three domestic areas — the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, the Bakken Formation in North Dakota and Montana as well as off the east coast of our country, the United States could be energy independent within 15 years.

All of the necessary exploration and drilling can and will be accomplished by the private sector without the “help” of the federal government. The DOE was created in 1977. Thirty-five years later, our country does not have a plan to achieve energy independence and our domestic energy potential remains unrealized. It’s time to eliminate this agency and empower the private sector to develop our energy resources.

2. Any and all federal Stimulus funding. The stimulus program was an abject failure that did not produce a single net new job after three years and billions of federal dollars. In addition to being ineffective, the stimulus was a misguided economic and fiscal policy. Government has proven over and over again that it does not create private sector jobs through public expenditures. A much better use of those dollars would have undertaken a reform of our tax and regulatory system, a simplification of the tax code and a tax cut – all of which would have helped spur the private investment that actually does create jobs.

3. Federal bonding and earmarks. With the national debt at $16 trillion and climbing, it’s time to stop the borrowing madness. Major bonding – which carries interest for 20 years or longer --should be reserved for major projects like clean water facilities and transportation infrastructure. Local earmarks, commonly referred to as “pork,” should be eliminated. Our country is broke and deeply in debt. The government should fund only essential projects based on merit, not based on whether powerful politicians can “bring home the bacon” to their districts. ”

“ As indicated so powerfully in the Simpson-Bowles “Moment of Truth” report, “Over the past decade, base discretionary spending (excluding war costs) has grown by 34 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars.” As the report so aptly observed, “no program that spends too much or achieves too little can be spared.” Three specific areas for spending reductions identified in this report, which I support are:

1. Reduce congressional and white house budgets by 15%. This proposal would save $800 million in 2015.

2. Reduce the size of the federal work force through attrition. $13.2 billion could be saved in 2015 if we reduced the federal work force by 10%. This could be achieved by hiring only two new workers for every three who leave government employment.

3. Impose a three-year freeze on increases to salaries paid to members of Congress and federal workers. Given the widespread downturn in the circumstances of those employed in the private sector, it is fair to ask federal elected officials and employees to endure this hardship in service to solving the financial crisis we together face as Americans. This proposal will save more than $20 billion in 2015. ”

“ 1. Eliminate or consolidate duplicative federal programs.

2. Reduce federal personnel by five percent through attrition.

3. Put a temporary six-month moratorium on any new federal regulation pending an expedited review of laws that add business cost without any defined benefit. ”