RAND PAUL: Putting forward a plan for Congress to balance the budget.

The Senate rules say that if the leadership and the Budget Committee don’t report out a budget by April 1, any senator can do it — so that’s exactly what I’m going to do this week.

I will introduce a FULLY BALANCED budget that includes spending cuts, entitlement reform, and a plan to bring our fiscal house in order. No more trillion-dollar deficits. No more adding to the $21 trillion debt with reckless abandon.

Instead, here are some of the highlights from my balanced budget plan.

My budget will balance in FIVE years, without touching Social Security. It repeals the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 and its trillion-dollar deficits and instead uses the Penny Plan to balance.

What does that mean? It means that next year we will spend 1 percent less than we spend this year, and for the next five years, until balance is reached between revenues and spending. After that, the budget will begin to grow again at one percent per year instead of cutting.

Sounds simple, right? Would you be able to do with 99 percent of what you had previously spent if you needed to? Washington will scream and holler, but these are the facts. We are $21 trillion in debt. The deficit is growing again. And it takes only a 1 percent cut per year for a few years to reverse this and to balance.

I’d rather make those cuts permanent after five years, with the savings split 50/50 between tax cuts and debt reduction. But even Paul’s baby steps are too much for Washington to take.