Keith Fitzgerald calls for 'common sense' budget, tax reforms

Democratic congressional candidate Keith Fitzgerald on Monday released what he said is a "common sense" plan to address the nation's fiscal challenges that includes both proposed spending cuts and reform of the tax code.

“All too often, Washington avoids the tough decisions and is too busy serving special interests and themselves," Fitzgerald said in a news release. "We must have leaders who are willing to work across party lines to stop the waste, special interest manipulation of the tax code, and actually reign in out of control spending in Washington."

Specifically, Fitzgerald is calling for:

• Overhauling the congressional budget process to hold members of Congress more accountable for meeting spending targets.
• Tax simplification and other reforms "because regular hardworking Americans don’t have the luxury or resources to hire insiders and lobbyists with access to Congress." Specific ways to do this, according to Fitzgerald, include eliminating tax deductions and other loopholes for companies that ship jobs overseas and the "ultra-wealthy."
• "Eliminating government waste, fraud and abuse" -- a frequent political mantra -- in Medicare, Medicaid and other programs. Fitzgerald also is calling for banning congressional earmarks, or "pork;" eliminating duplicative programs; and reducing the size of the federal vehicle fleet by 20 percent.
• A limited line item veto that would allow Congress to vote up or down on the president's proposed cuts to a spending bill. (Currently, the president can only veto an entire bill.)

"There are some simple bi-partisan steps that Washington can take right now to begin address our federal spending and growing national debt including reforming and simplifying our tax code and cracking down on government fraud in programs like Medicare and Medicaid,” Fitzgerald said.

Read Fitzgerald's plan here.

Fitzgerald faces Republican Rep. Vern Buchanan in the Nov. 6 general election for the 16th District seat in the House of Representatives.