Moak says he’d leave Congress if federal budget remains unbalanced

In this season of campaign promises, businessman Steve Moak pledges to not seek reelection if the federal government’s budget remains unbalanced in six years.

But Moak, who is vying for the Republican nomination in Arizona’s 3rd Congressional District in August, insists it’s not just another campaign pledge.

For one, he’s binding himself to a specific time frame, he said.

“I’d tell people to mark this on their calendar, take this and put this on their refrigerator,” Moak said, referring to a mailer that contains his promise. “April 15, 2016 – we’ll know whether the budget is balanced that year.

“If we don’t, then we’ll get somebody else to finish the job,” he said.

Of course, this would all depend on Moak breaking through a 10-candidate primary field on Aug. 24 that includes a number of strong candidates. The pledge also assumes the Paradise Valley businessman would be elected to serve two more terms.

The idea is for politicians to draw up specific and measurable goals, and put their job on the line if they don’t achieve those goals, he said.

Moak isn’t the first candidate – and he won’t be the last – who promises to work on achieving a balanced federal budget by curbing wasteful spending.

What might be considered novel, if at all, is the idea that he would step down if he can’t do the job within three terms. He’s also seeking to convince voters that he’s up to the task given his business background.

To that end, Moak’s campaign is rolling out an aggressive mail and TV campaign to highlight his pledge.

But to say that balancing the federal budget is a tall order would be an understatement.

The federal budget deficit is estimated to be about $1.3 trillion for the current budget year.

The deficit is also projected to hover above $1 trillion in 2011.

Whoever wins the race in CD3, however, will be joining a Congress amid an increasingly anti-deficit environment and widespread anger by the public at government spending following several bailout programs that benefited major companies and Wall Street firms.

Moak said the task is doable because he believes Republicans will take the House this November – and can begin to get the budget in line with revenue – and then win the White House in two years, which would put them in a better position to balance the budget.

Moak has several ideas in mind to achieve the job, some of which are familiar, such as opposition to earmarks. Another idea is to bring federal employee’s total compensation in line with what employees in the private sector get.

Citing data from the Cato Institute, Moak complained that federal employees’ total compensation is about twice as large as private employees.

“By simply bringing federal employee pay in line with the private sector, we’d get big, significant savings,” he said.