Cost of Big Government

• A legitimate and primary purpose of civil government is to safeguard the God-given rights of its citizens; namely, life, liberty, and property. Only those duties, functions, and programs specifically assigned to the government by the Constitution should be funded. All expenditures which are not specifically authorized by the U.S. Constitution or Ohio Constitution should be eliminated.

• I reject that the state of Ohio should ever accrue debt. Budget considerations are greatly impacted by the ever-rising national debt and interest on this debt is one of the largest expenses of government. We must always eliminate our state debt in the shortest reasonable time by: Not spending more than collected revenues; paying interest as it accrues; and making annual reductions in the principal.

• I wholly reject the misleading use of the terms "surplus" and "balanced budget" as long as we have public debt. I oppose dishonest accounting practices such as "off-budget items" used to hide unconstitutional spending practices.