As president, John McCain will work to ensure that money spent by Congress, and contributed by hardworking American taxpayers, is used wisely and prudently on legitimate national priorities, not squandered on wasteful pet projects and special interest earmarks.

American families rightly expect the government to wisely manage the dollars they send to Washington. As responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars, the federal government must respect the bottom line, just as families do when balancing their own checkbooks.

As president, John McCain will not just talk about fiscal discipline, he will exercise it. The practice of excessive borrowing and deficit spending in Washington must stop. To do otherwise robs the American people of their right to responsible government, and places on future generations of Americans the burden of paying the bill for today's waste and indiscipline.

Ending Pork Barrel Spending

"The federal government spends too much money, squanders precious resources on questionable projects pushed by special interests, and ignores the priorities of the American taxpayer." -Senator John McCain

Year after year, powerful members of Congress divert taxpayer dollars to special interest pet projects with little or no national value. This practice is especially egregious during wartime, when any federal spending wasted on parochial programs to satisfy special interests represents a failure by the federal government to properly steward tax dollars. John McCain has steadfastly fought to reform this broken system and end the self-serving largesse that defines the current budget process.

As president, John McCain will oppose spending money on projects that siphon away tax dollars collected to fund these important commitments. Setting priorities, and keeping them, is a crucial step toward fiscal restraint and an important priority for a McCain presidency. Every dollar irresponsibly spent by Congress is a dollar diverted from pressing national priorities including lowering the tax burden on working Americans, supporting the men and women fighting the war on terror, making good on the nation's financial commitments at home, including to senior citizens, and paying down the national debt.

Increasing Transparency

Accountability and transparency are the pillars of essential reform. Americans deserve to know how their elected representatives are spending their money. Members of Congress who request earmarks in legislation should be identified and their request should be fully described. Too often, wasteful spending is obscured or buried in hundreds of pages of legislation. Demanding transparency in the budget process will identify elected officials with their fiscal decisions and will ensure Americans know exactly how each of their hard-earned tax dollars is spent.

Making Tough Choices

As president, John McCain is prepared to make the tough, fair, and responsible choices that honor our promises to current beneficiaries and to our children. Every year these decisions are delayed makes meeting this responsibility more difficult and expensive.

Promises made to previous and current generations have placed the United States on an unsustainable budget pathway. Unchecked, Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare obligations will grow as large as the entire federal budget is now in just a few decades. Without comprehensive bipartisan reform to America's entitlement programs, the nation will be unable to meet the challenges of providing vital medical and social security assistance to future generations.

Leadership

America has a proud tradition of improving life for each generation. John McCain is a leader with the courage to do what's right. As president, he will be a common sense steward of the national treasury who we can count on to respect taxpayers and their money, meet priorities, and safeguard the freedom and prosperity of this and future generations.

Path to Lower Taxes

John McCain has always believed in the power of the American people, and the importance of keeping marginal tax rates low. But, tax cuts work best when accompanied by lower spending. Higher taxes and greater spending discourage entrepreneurship, foster wasteful tax-planning and slow long-term growth. Intelligently-formulated tax cuts and sensible tax reform will deliver much higher growth when they are accompanied by lower spending.

Opening Markets & Opportunity

America has proven that empowering free markets and free people is the bulwark of liberty and the surest means to prosperity. We have much to be hopeful about, but duty requires that we face the very real threats that endanger our prosperity. The United States has succeeded because we have been more willing to embrace and encourage change than our competitors. Advances in information technologies have made us better at discovery, quicker to find the new idea that works. Today, American firms spend more money each year researching new ideas and processes than they do on new buildings and machines. And we have opened our doors to the best and brightest from other countries to seek the American dream.

That willingness to change has brought us great wealth, but it has produced justified anxiety as well. Change can cause dislocation and fear, and the opportunities of economic growth are not always apparent to all Americans. These anxieties are exacerbated when those elected to govern spend more of our time on our own ambitions than their concerns. We face serious challenges, and many Americans worry that their government cannot be relied on to face them forthrightly. We have given them cause for that concern.

A global rising tide of economic isolationism is threatening our entrepreneurs. Opening new markets is a key to U.S. economic success. Today, despite all the defeatist rhetoric, America is the world's biggest exporter, importer, producer, saver, investor, manufacturer and innovator. Americans do not shy from the challenge of competition: they welcome it. Because of that, we attract foreign investment from all over the world. Our government should welcome competition as our people do, and not pretend that we can wall off our economy.

Neither should we fail to recognize that competition can lead to painful dislocations for some individuals. We must remain committed to education, retraining, and help for displaced workers all the while reminding ourselves that our ability to change is a great strength of our nation. Indeed, Washington must keep pace with this change and develop new approaches to ensure that our ideas are protected, our intellectual property rights are respected, and our economic outreach serves the American workers today and in the future.