Gary Johnson: My response to the presidential debate

Gary Johnson | USATODAY

Third-party candidates were not invited to participate in the presidential debates. USA TODAY invited them -- and their vice presidential candidates -- to provide answers to one question from each debate. Here's Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson's answer to what he would do about the federal deficit:

Everyone, including President Obama and former governor Mitt Romney, gives lip service to reducing the deficit. But when you do the math -- whether it be Obama's, Romney's or even Paul Ryan's -- there is no plan for eliminating deficits that adds up. When a politician, Republican or Democrat, tells you we can balance the budget while not reducing Medicare costs or while spending even more for defense, it simply cannot be done. And they know it can't be done.

Americans deserve the truth. The truth is that our deficits are not only unsustainable, but represent a very real threat to this nation. And of the $16 trillion in debt our government in Washington has racked up, it is almost equally split between Republican and Democrat administrations.

It doesn't have to be that way. I will submit a balanced budget in 2013. Yes, that budget will call for spending reductions of 43% -- the reductions necessary to match revenues without raising taxes.

If, as I suspect will be the case, Congress cannot muster the courage for such cuts, I will veto any legislation that mandates deficit spending. As governor of New Mexico, I vetoed 750 bills and thousands of budget line-items -- and left the state with a healthy surplus after my two terms, even with a Democrat legislature.

Our economic condition is too precarious for us to nibble around the edges. We must dramatically reduce not only what government costs, but what it does.

Only then will prosperity return and opportunity be real.

In addition to its own editorials, USA TODAY publishes diverse opinions from outside writers, including our Board of Contributors.