Martin O’Malley Participated in ‘Fiscal Friday’
on October 19th 2015
Former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president, participated in the second “Fiscal Friday” discussion on October 16. He followed Ohio Governor John Kasich, who is seeking the Republican nomination and kicked off the series earlier this month. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) will take part this coming Friday.
The first question asked of Gov. O’Malley was what his first budget would look like if elected president. He responded, “My first budget would be a budget that’s fiscally responsible as every budget I’ve ever submitted as an executive.” He also said, “You cannot sustain progress unless you’re also mindful of the math and fiscally responsible.”
He pointed to his fiscal record as governor, claiming that he made more cuts that any governor in modern Maryland history. However, he also spoke about the need for balance. “You got to be fiscally responsible, but you also have to invest in the future if we want our kids to be winners in this changing economy.” He added, “No great people ever cut their way to prosperity.”
Gov. O’Malley elaborated, “I do think overall, that one of the bigger challenges we face as a country is how we make the investments again in the skills of our people, our infrastructure, the innovative capacity of our nation to solve human problems with human solutions, and that won’t happen by investing less. It can only happen if we, like our parents and grandparents, invest more.”
O’Malley also discussed some specifics. He said he would pay for his debt-free college initiative with a transactions tax on Wall Street trading. He also stated that his plan to expand Social Security would be paid for it by scrapping the payroll tax cap. His plan includes raising average benefits by $65 per month. He also argued that passing comprehensive immigration reform would help bolster Social Security to counter-act the aging of the workforce.
He went on to say that one of the biggest opportunities to find savings is in health care reform. Gov. O’Malley talked about how he moved all the Maryland acute care hospitals away from fee-for-service and to a system of global payments that emphasized keeping people healthy. He claimed this saved the state $100 million last year. He also said he would use these savings to pay for scrapping the “Cadillac Tax” on high-end health care plans.
In addition, he discussed changing the budget process and how the federal government operates, stating, “We need to break out of the annual budget process. You don’t create savings and efficiencies just by looking at it once a year in terms of inputs.” He called for management and leadership, advocating for more performance management and measuring to reduce costs and find efficiencies. He also said that there needs to be more openness and transparency in the government.
Gov. O’Malley also discussed the need for tax reform. He said he wants to eliminate loopholes to produce a “lower but more effective tax rate,” but didn’t provide specifics on what loopholes he would get rid of. He wants to simplify the tax code to make it more competitive, but also said we have to ask the very wealthiest to do more for their country by paying more in taxes.
First Budget, an initiative of Fix the Debt and the Concord Coalition, is proud to partner with NH1, the Warren B. Rudman Center at the University of New Hampshire Law School, and The Business and Industry Association of New Hampshire (BIA) on Fiscal Fridays. The TV interview series focuses on the fiscal and economic priorities of 2016 presidential candidates.
Senator Lindsey Graham will participate in the next Fiscal Friday, on October 23 at 10 am ET. You can watch it here.
More information about Fiscal Fridays, including videos and recaps of previous discussions, can be found here.
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