A federal budget that actually reduces the national debt.

01 / THE GOAL

Reduce both measures of federal debt

Total gross federal debt includes debt held by the public and debt Treasury owes other parts of the federal government, including trust funds. Both measures deserve public scrutiny. GAO: Federal debt and debt management

My primary measure of success would be a reduction in total gross federal debt. Debt held by the public must decline as well. The test would be a year-over-year reduction in the dollar amount of each measure.

I support a two-to-three-year transition to this requirement. During that transition, Congress would need to put the spending and budget changes in place to support recurring surpluses and annual debt reduction.

02 / ACCOUNTABILITY

Make the accounting independently verifiable

I support an independently audited annual reconciliation showing:

• Revenue actually collected.
• Spending, including interest.
• The reported budget surplus or deficit.
• The actual change in total gross debt and debt held by the public.
• Changes in cash balances and other transactions that explain the relationship between the budget results and the debt totals.

The report should allow the public to determine whether the government met the debt-reduction requirement and understand why the figures changed. A claim of fiscal progress must be supported by an actual decline in debt.

03 / THE EXCEPTION

Limit the exception to major war

The exception I support is war against a peer threat, or war against multiple smaller countries whose combined military-readiness requirements are equivalent to those of a peer threat.

The scale of the military-readiness requirement would define this exception. Outside that specified wartime circumstance, the annual debt-reduction requirement would remain in effect.

04 / HEALTHCARE SPENDING

Reduce Medicare and Medicaid spending through substantive reform

I support lowering total dollar spending on both Medicare and Medicaid from the previous year. The goal is an actual annual reduction in spending.

The reforms I want to pursue focus on four areas:

Administrative costs.

Reduce waste and unnecessary overhead in the administration of the programs.

Payments to insurers and contractors.

Change payment arrangements and incentives to reduce unnecessary spending and improve the value received for public money.

Fraud enforcement.

Strengthen efforts to identify, prevent, and address deliberate fraud against the programs.

Prices paid for care and medicines.

Reform the prices the programs pay so that public spending delivers better value.

My commitment is to preserve existing covered care and out-of-pocket costs for patients who remain eligible for subsidized coverage under the proposed rules. The wealthy-beneficiary rule below is the specified change to Medicare subsidy eligibility.

Fraud savings must be described accurately. Improper-payment estimates can include errors, underpayments, and insufficient documentation; they are not a measure of proven fraud or an amount that can automatically be recovered in full. GAO: Fraud and improper payments; CMS: Fiscal Year 2025 improper-payment explanation

05 / BENEFIT ELIGIBILITY

Establish a $7.5 million net-worth threshold

I support ending federal Medicare subsidies and Social Security retirement payments at a net worth of $7.5 million or more.

The rule would apply to both existing and future beneficiaries. It would use a cutoff: the affected subsidy or retirement payment would end entirely at the threshold. Eligibility would return when net worth fell below $7.5 million, subject to the program’s other eligibility requirements.

For Medicare, the proposal preserves the ability to participate while requiring those above the threshold to pay the full unsubsidized cost of coverage.

Medicare already charges higher-income beneficiaries higher Part B and Part D premiums. My proposal would introduce the specified net-worth threshold for ending the federal subsidy. SSA: Medicare premiums for higher-income beneficiaries

06 / EVIDENCE & EVALUATION

Establish the savings with evidence

The budget challenge is substantial. In its February 11, 2026 baseline, the Congressional Budget Office projected a $1.9 trillion federal deficit for fiscal year 2026. That figure is a dated baseline projection; it is not a cost estimate of this proposal. CBO: The Budget and Economic Outlook, 2026–2036

This policy sets out the outcomes and reforms I support. The amount each reform would save, its implementation costs, and its effects on patients and providers still require analysis. The combined budget changes must be evaluated against the goal of annual surpluses and declining debt.

The public should be able to assess this policy through clear results: lower gross debt, lower debt held by the public, lower total Medicare and Medicaid spending, and preservation of the coverage and out-of-pocket protections described above.