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Congressman Scott supports reducing our budget deficit and balancing the federal budget, but not at the expense of cutting vital government functions, such as defense, education, transportation, Social Security and Medicare.

Congressman Scott understands that deficit reduction requires making sometimes tough, unpopular choices. During his first year serving in Congress, Congressman Scott supported the 1993 Clinton budget, which narrowly passed the House and the Senate. The 1993 Clinton budget, also known as the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, helped put the nation on a strong fiscal path and turned federal budget deficits into federal budget surpluses. By 2001, the Congressional Budget Office projected a ten year surplus of $5.6 trillion. At the time, that would have been enough to completely eliminate the national debt held by the public by 2008, and we would owe nothing to China, Japan, and Saudi Arabia.

Citing likely fiscal disaster, Congressman Scott opposed President George W. Bush's 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. Congressman Scott correctly pointed out that these tax cuts were not paid for and would wreak havoc on the budget. Combined with the Bush Administration's unpaid for Medicare prescription drug plan, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, an economy deep in recession, and these tax cuts, by the end of the Bush Administration, the annual federal budget deficit had climbed to $1.4 trillion and instead of paying off the national debt held by the public, the total national debt ballooned from $5.7 trillion in 2001 to $10.7 trillion by the end of 2008.

In late 2010, when these Bush-era tax cuts were set to expire, Congressman Scott opposed the two year extension because the nation could not afford them and if they continued to be extended, it would likely force Congress to make deep cuts in vital government services, including Social Security and Medicare.

In 2011, Congressman Scott opposed the Budget Control Act, which conditioned an increase in the nation's debt ceiling on Congress cutting approximately $2.2 trillion from the federal budget over the next 10 years. $1.2 trillion of those $2.2 trillion in cuts was contingent on whether a Congressional deficit reduction committee, commonly referred to as the "Super Committee," reported out a deficit reduction plan totaling $1.2 trillion by the end of 2011. If the Super Committee failed, which it did, the $1.2 trillion in cuts would be implemented through a draconian across-the-board budget cutting process known as "sequestration." Congressman Scott voted against the Budget Control Act because Congress failed to address a driving factor of the nation's budget deficit – the Bush-era tax cuts – and its failure to do so would set the stage for sequestration and cuts to Social Security and Medicare.

In early 2013, during the fiscal cliff debacle, Congress permanently extended a majority of the Bush-era tax cuts at a ten-year cost, as estimated by the Congressional Budget Office, of $3.9 trillion and failed to cancel the $1.2 trillion sequester. Congressman Scott opposed the so-called "Fiscal Cliff Deal" because it permanently extended these unaffordable tax cuts and did nothing to address sequestration, which would and has had a significant negative impact on the Commonwealth of Virginia and his constituents.

In order to responsibly reduce our deficit, Congressman Scott believes that it is imperative that Congress go back and review the Fiscal Cliff Deal and cancel some of the tax cuts that were permanently extended in order to cancel the sequester. He also believes that Congress should review our tax code and end the numerous special interest tax breaks that riddle our tax code.

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