{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.paul.senate.gov/dr-rand-paul-introduces-six-penny-plan-to-balance-the-federal-budget-in-five-years-2/", "Dr. Rand Paul Introduces Six Penny Plan to Balance the Federal Budget in Five Years", "2025-09-16", "2025", "2025-09", "Republican", "Senate", "KY", "Rand Paul", "P000603", "www.paul.senate.gov", "paul", "https://www.paul.senate.gov/news/", "scraper", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:\n\nSeptember 16th, 2025\n\nContact: Press_Paul@paul.senate.gov, 202-224-4343\n\nDr. Rand Paul Introduces Six Penny Plan to Balance the Federal Budget in Five Years\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) has introduced the Six Penny Plan, a federal budget resolution that will balance on-budget outlays and revenues within five years by cutting six cents off every dollar projected to be spent over the next five fiscal years.\n\nDuring the current fiscal year, the federal government overspent and added $2.1 trillion to the gross national debt; an increase of $16,117 for every U.S. household. The federal government\u2019s overspending for FY2025 is projected to result in the third-highest deficit in U.S. history.\n\nAccording to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the United States is on track to record the third-largest deficit in American history this year. Interest payments on the debt now surpass the America\u2019s military spending, underscoring how runaway borrowing is crowding out core national priorities. With the national debt exceeding $37 trillion, it now stands at nearly twice the value of all bank deposits in the country. Put another way, even if all American bank accounts were emptied to pay down the debt, the amount would cover only about half of what Washington owes.\n\nWhen Dr. Paul first introduced a penny plan in 2017, a simple spending freeze was enough to balance the budget within five years. Today, because of years of reckless spending, achieving balance requires reducing projected spending by six percent annually. Under the Six Penny Plan, the first year would result in spending at 94 percent of current levels, with annual reductions of six percent continuing until balance is achieved in year five. After the fifth year, spending would be allowed to rise at the same pace as revenues over the next five years.\n\n\u201cI introduced my first Penny Plan in 2018, prior to that, a spending freeze was all it took to balance the budget in five years,\u201d said Dr. Paul. \u201cToday, runaway deficits and skyrocketing interest costs mean it will take a six percent reduction annually just to get us back on track. The math doesn\u2019t lie. Either we take responsibility now, or we condemn our children and grandchildren to economic ruin.\u201d\n\nRead the Six Penny Plan HERE.\n\n###", 1, "2026-04-04T05:28:40Z", "2026-04-04T05:30:10Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.paul.senate.gov/dr-rand-paul-introduces-six-penny-plan-to-balance-the-federal-budget-in-five-years-2/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.324421191588044, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}