Fiscal Responsibility

Individual

Individuals must be responsible for their own financial wellbeing.  At times, however, the government may need to step in and provide temporary assistance as a final resource for the person in need, when all else has failed.

Corporate

Business entities shall operate under a free enterprise system, and shall have the right to succeed and fail.  There is no guarantee of success.  From my own experience, I have learned that when you fail, it's up to you to learn from your mistakes, and to go from there.  As it currently stands, we reward failure by bailing out bankrupt companies and therefore supporting their failed policies (for example, the automakers).  By rewarding these types of failure (those that don't lead to growth and improvement), we make it okay to fail, and even encourage it.  There is no incentive to work hard to succeed if both success and failure will "pay off" in the end.

Socialism is not progressive; however, in the event of a business failure that is critical to the security of the nation, governmental assistance to protect and return the entity to profitability may be necessary.  Within the past five years, I have not seen an event that has met this description, and feel the corporate bailouts were neither necessary nor appropriate.

Congress has no business intervening in private enterprise in any way, shape, or form.  In the case that a bailout-appropriate situation as described above did arise, the bailout should be offered not because the Government has personal interest in it, but because it is in the nation's best interest.  Government should have no right to partial ownership of any private company, as the federal government now does in the banking system.

When public funds are used, it should be in the public interest, and once the appropriate bailout has been offered, the Government should be absolutely hands-off in policymaking of the company.  Bailing out a private business must be so important that the government is willing to take a loss (not make a profit from the bailout), and the responsible private industry should be expected to repay the taxpayers who bailed them out.  Government should never have any say in the details of how a private company is run.

Again, I have yet to see any private industry's failure meet the criteria I've described above, and doubt we will soon.

Government

Federal, state, and local governments must live within their means and maintain balanced budgets.

Trust funds must remain separate from general funds, and may not be used for any purpose other than their original intent.  I am beyond irked when current politicians ask us to trust them, and then raid the People's trust funds.  The only case in which funds may be used, if deemed dire and necessary for the defense of the nation, is during times of war as declared and voted upon by Congress. 

Governments must maintain an appropriate level of reserve funds - this means that debt is absolutely unacceptable!  A portion of these reserves (or savings) should be permitted to be used as investment funds, to ensure the future stability of our nation, and it should be managed by a third-party blind trust, who cannot personally profit or gain from it.