Rep. Kind Talks Deficit Reduction - WXOW News 19 La Crosse, WI – News, Weather and Sports |

La Crosse, Wisconsin (WXOW) - Representative Ron Kind held a press conference today to talk about his plan for reducing the deficit.

Kind started the conversation by returning more than $120,000 of his Congressional budget back to the treasury to go toward the national deficit. But the major focus of his plan to reduce the deficit is healthcare and defense spending.

Kind sited studies that show one out of every three dollars spent on healthcare go toward practices that don't work and weapons programs which are $300 billion over budget.

Representative Kind said, "Defense spending-I mean we are now paying for a defense that's acting like the world policemen across the globe, even though we are having a hard time paying our own bills at home. No one's been able to explain to me why we still have 80,000 troops stationed in western Europe, guarding against the Russian invasion. That is not going to happen in our lifetime."

Kind also spoke about the legislation he helped pass to ban earmark spending and a farm subsidies reform bill he will be presenting later this year.