After watching Washington rack up a $16 trillion national debt, I knew we had to focus on fiscal discipline for our country. I have been working across party lines to cut wasteful federal spending—large and small. I supported a balanced budget amendment. And I have refused to take a pay raise every year since I’ve been elected.

I have teamed with Republican colleagues on many occasions. Together, we passed efforts to rescind all unused federal earmarks older than 10 years—saving more than $500 million. We pushed to change the Veterans Affairs budget to a two-year cycle and cut larger federal programs from the Department of Defense budget.

As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, I led the charge against the wasteful MEADS air defense research program the Army has no intention of using—eliminating more than $800 million from the Defense budget.

In these tough economic times, we all have to tighten our belts. That’s why I have refused to take a pay raise. And when the sequester hit, I returned a portion of my salary back to the Treasury.

Although I strongly support significant budget cuts, I know we can’t just cut our way out of debt; we have to grow the economy through investment in road, bridge, rail, and airport repair and tax reform. We need to build an account to rebuild our critical infrastructure.

I am a lead sponsor of a bipartisan tax reform bill. The tax reform bill will simplify America’s tax code, reduce corporate and individual tax brackets, and eliminate tax loopholes while creating more than 2.3 million new jobs and cutting the deficit by $61 billion a year.