I believe that erasing our yearly budget deficits and paying down America’s debt should be our number one fiscal priority when we rise out of the current recession. Postponing reform will only make the problem more difficult to solve.

I have proposed a plan based on four common-sense pillars of reform that will rein in America’s escalating debt and grow our economy. First, we need to fundamentally change the way we budget our tax dollars and impose pay-as-you-go budgeting rules.

Second, we should rebalance the tax code so that it benefits the middle class and working Americans and not the biggest corporations and the wealthiest Americans. Third, if we’re going to restore sanity to our nation’s finances, we need to take another look at the health insurance industry. Finally, we should heed Secretary Gates’ call to rein in non-essential defense spending.

The soaring cost of higher education is quickly pricing out many of today’s brightest students. In the 1970s, the maximum Pell grant covered more than two-thirds of tuition and fees for a public four-year university; today, it covers only a third of the cost.

As State Treasurer, I established the Bright Start Scholarship Program to help up to 3,000 students statewide afford undergraduate educations. In the Senate, I will fight to make higher education more affordable by supporting an expansion of Pell Grants by $40 billion and indexing it to inflation to ensure that any young person who works hard can afford to attend school. My opponent voted against an effort to cut out the corporate middle man and use those savings to expand Pell grants. We need a Senator who is willing to stand up for students, not Wall Street donors.

Quality education is, and must continue to be, the foundation of the American economy. As we climb out from this economic crisis, we must prepare Americans for the jobs of the future. This strategy is about more than just recovery — it is about how we will emerge stronger than before. America will only continue to lead if our children can compete in the global economy.

My plan begins before children enter kindergarten with increased investment in Head Start, Early Head Start, and other early childhood education programs. For every dollar we invest in our children before they are five years of age, we save up to $17 in the future because they are likely to earn more and less likely to drop out of school, be incarcerated, or seek welfare.

We must also invest in higher education and advanced job training opportunities, and ensure that our children are mastering the subjects that will keep them competitive in today's global economy. In the Senate, I will work to make higher education more affordable by supporting an expansion of Pell Grants and proposing new financial incentives and tax credits to make sure any young person who works hard can afford to attend school.

I believe that the federal government should ensure minimum levels of achievement for schools, but should allow states and localities the flexibility to experiment with new education techniques.

There is no greater safety net for America’s seniors than Social Security. Without the program, about half of America’s elderly would live in poverty. The program faces challenges, but those challenges are not immediate – the program is projected to have a surplus until 2037. This gives Congress the opportunity to implement a long-term fix for the program to avoid any cuts in benefits or dramatic revenue increases.

I do not support any change to the retirement age or the current benefits level. A solution to shore up the fund could come on the revenue side. For instance, I could support a proposal to lower the payroll tax rate but raise the salary cap. This would have the added advantage of serving as a tax cut for lower- and middle-class workers.

I support age appropriate, medically-accurate, comprehensive sex education that includes information about both abstinence and contraception.

The decision to have an abortion is a deeply personal and difficult one. I am committed to protecting a woman’s right to choose under Roe v. Wade, and oppose any constitutional amendment that would override that right. I also support more funding for preventive initiatives aimed at reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies, including greater access to contraceptives that curb the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, and comprehensive sex education programs that teach safe sex methods. Preventing unwanted pregnancies would reduce the number of abortions and result in fewer unwanted births and their long-term consequences.

Stem cell research has the potential to help us understand, and potentially cure, some of our most devastating diseases, like Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. I supported the guidelines the National Institute of Health issued last year that permitting federal funding for research on certain stem cell lines that had not been allowed during the Bush administration. I was pleased the D.C. Court of Appeals struck down U.S. District Judge Royce Lambert’s preliminary order that blocked funding for some stem cell research. Congress should act immediately to pass legislation to allow the funding, so this important research is not at the mercy of the courts.

I support efforts to create a comprehensive, market-based system that spurs investment in renewable energy and new clean energy jobs. This can be achieved through several different mechanisms, including a national Renewable Energy Standard or a market-based pollution trading system.

This isn’t just an environmental issue, or an economic issue – it’s also a national security issue. We are addicted to oil – an addiction that causes us to send billions of dollars overseas each day to buy oil from unstable and undemocratic regimes – the same regimes that are the primary funders of terrorism.

Earlier this year I outlined a comprehensive plan to wean America from oil and create a new clean energy economy. My plan establishes an oil reduction target of 7 million barrels per day by 2030, nearly wiping out the anticipated demand for foreign oil by increasing fuel efficiency standards and bringing new, cleaner sources of energy to scale through a national Renewable Energy Standard. As part of this plan, we should raise the ethanol blend level so that the market demand can be met.

When we address global warming, we are spurring the industries of tomorrow, creating good jobs that can’t be outsourced, and restoring America’s place as the innovation leader. And when we set strong market signals that cap air and water pollutants, we are establishing a level playing field that allows the most innovative companies to reduce costs for consumers, reduce the damage to our environment, and become industry leaders.

My first act as Treasurer was to end pay-to-play in my office with the most sweeping ethics reform in the State’s history. I brought that same commitment to the Senate race, which is why I refuse contributions from corporate PACs and federal lobbyists, including big oil and coal companies. I won’t take their money and I won’t vote their way.

Washington DC could use a similar cleansing. Every day we see the effects of special interest influence on public policy. That’s why I have outlined an aggressive government reform plan so that our government enacts the types of policies that benefit all Americans, not just the wealthiest ones. Earlier this year I released a comprehensive government reform plan that includes a lifetime ban on members of Congress from becoming lobbyists, prohibits any members of my Senate staff who become lobbyists from lobbying me or becoming rehired, increases lobbyists disclosure requirement, earmark reform and imposes a moratorium on congressional pay raises until the federal budget is balanced.

From the start, I have said that our military presence in Afghanistan should be aimed at rooting out the terrorists responsible for 9/11. In order to achieve that, we must make reasonable strides toward giving the Afghanis an opportunity to develop a government that works, and training and enabling the Afghanis to secure their own borders and to keep al Qaeda and the Taliban out of the region themselves. I do not believe that there is a purely military path to victory in Afghanistan. We need an integrated approach, which includes refocused civilian efforts and international diplomacy as well as military options. Critical to all of this is a flourishing democracy that is not rooted in corruption.

I supported the President's decision to increase troop levels as part of a larger military and political strategy to defeat the Taliban insurgency and permanently expel al Qaeda from Afghanistan. We are seeing some signs of success with securing areas in the south now under Taliban control and strengthening Afghan security forces.

I have been saying all along that this is not, and should not be, an open-ended commitment. We are dedicating billions of dollars and thousands of American lives into the country and our commitment cannot continue indefinitely. Our draw-down should proceed as planned next year.