Rand Paul’s “Six Penny” Plan to Balance the Budget

The United States’s national debt is, at the time of writing, $30.5 trillion. That’s a 30 with twelve zeroes. $30,500,000,000,000. I personally think that’s too high.

So does Kentucky Senator Rand “Ramen Hair” Paul, which is why he’s introduced a “Six Penny Plan” to not only balance the federal budget, but create a multi-billion surplus by 2027. The plan establishes spending parameters for various departments (except Social Security) year by year rather than identifying specific cuts now, not unlike the budget-balancing bills he introduced in 2017, 2018, and 2019. (In a press release, America’s sassiest senator couldn’t resist pointing out that, if the 2017 budget had been adopted, the federal budget would be balanced this year.)

In 2017, Dr. Paul introduced his first budget that balanced using a flexible, top-line, on-budget spending limitation. That budget was not a reduction in spending, but a simple five-year freeze. Had that budget been adopted then, the budget would have balanced this year.

By 2018 . . . Dr. Paul again offered a budget that balanced, but now required a one penny per-dollar reduction in spending off the top-line.

. . .

In 2019, the situation was still worse. Whereas in the previous year a single penny on the dollar was required to balance, now it required two cents. Dr. Paul again offered a now “Pennies Plan,” which again would have balanced in just 5 years. 

Since Dr. Paul’s first spending freeze budget, Congress has added nearly $11 trillion to the federal debt. The annual structural deficit has more than doubled, and interest payments on the debt have grown by 32 percent. Inflation has reached a 40-year high. And now, a simple penny or two is insufficient to balance. 

Now, it requires SIX pennies to balance the budget in five years. 

Unfortunately, the fact that our national debt is in excess of $30 trillion (did you see how many freaking zeroes that is??!) even after his first three attempts paints a bleak outlook for the success of this current bill. Rand seems to be the only person in Congress to realize that mo’ money does NOT mean mo’ problems, and that the saying actually should be mo’ debt, mo’ problems.

Most Americans realize this as well: In 2021, a whopping 82% of Americans stated that the federal budget deficit was a big problem– the second biggest problem the country is facing, according to Pew Research Center. So if you support a budget-balancing proposal and your representatives don’t seem interested in doing the same, maybe give them a call.

The Six Penny Plan can be found in its entirety here.