I’m a doctor by trade, not a politician. Politicians negotiate, equivocate and settle for half-measures. But a good doctor puts their focus and energy into diagnosing what’s wrong, and then they are laser-focused on solving problems for their patients. A doctor can’t simply pass the buck or ignore a problem like a politician would.
This is what motivated me to run for office, and why I’ve relentlessly tried to end Congress’ crippling addiction to deficits and debt. Annual deficits are now at $2 trillion and the debt is over $40 trillion. It’s a problem, and it will not miraculously fix itself, though Congress wishes it would.
This is why I’ve never voted to increase the debt ceiling. It’s why I’ve consistently opposed new spending and offered countless offsets to pay for new spending.
My Six Penny Plan
I pride myself in conducting my personal office affairs entirely consistent with my long public record of fiscal conservatism. Virtually every group that assesses voting records faithful to limited government ranks me as the senator most faithful to the Constitution.
The Republican Liberty Caucus ranks me first, as does the Institute for Legislative Analysis. I’ve consistently led the field in rankings of fiscal conservativeness by the National Taxpayers Union.
Rand Paul: Republicans shouldn’t cave on Obamacare subsidies. I have another plan.
I have proposed a balanced budget resolution each year since 2011, forcing the Senate to take up and vote on them. In 2017, I proposed the “Penny Plan” budget. The Penny Plan would have been a manageable, 1% cut in non-Social Security spending for five years, which would have restored the federal budget to balance. Had it passed then, the federal budget today would have already been balanced.
But as Congress continued to approve out-of-control deficits in the years that followed, the Penny Plan had to become the “Pennies” Plan, and today it’s the “Six Penny” Plan. Which means it now takes five years of 6% cuts to achieve the same result as a 1% cut would have just a few years prior.
I have proposed a version of the Penny Plan budget every year since 2017 — including introducing the Six Penny Plan this year — and I am encouraged that the majority of Senate Republicans voted with me in 2024 and 2025. I will also bring the 2026 Six Penny Plan budget for a vote.
Leading by example
While the majority in Congress have resisted my Penny Plan budget, I have doggedly done my best to spend my office budget — the only budget I completely control — wisely.
Over my time in office, I have returned over $9.2 million. Out of the current U.S. Senate, only four senators have returned more money than my office. If our country is going to achieve a balanced budget, the government will need to find efficiencies and savings, and I have led by example, showing how government can still do more with less.
While these savings do accrue over time, they obviously aren’t enough by themselves to balance the entire federal budget. But I do take pride in leading by example and by remaining true to the constitutional principles that drive me to vote consistently for less deficit spending.
Rand Paul: Why I voted against Trump’s ‘Big, Not-So-Beautiful Bill’ | Opinion
On office paid government flights, my office averages a little over $4000 per year — the largest user of government paid flights spends over 70 times that much. I’m also the only current U.S. senator that has never taken a government paid flight overseas. The one place you will never see me is on a government plane, jetting to spend time at the Paris Air Show.
As the black SUVs zoom around Washington, you will see me modestly riding in a 14-year-old Toyota Camry. At home in Kentucky, you’ll see me waiting in line, like everybody else, to pump my own gas. I don’t ask for applause. My behavior is and should be expected of all elected officials. But I do ask that partisans not skew or cherry-pick data to allege that my conduct in my personal office is anything less than frugal and fiscally conservative.
Tell us what you think. Submit your letter to the editor.
Rand Paul
Rand Paul is a United States senator from Kentucky and the author of “The Case Against Socialism.”
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Rand Paul: I’m leading by example to solve our national debt | Opinion