INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A candidate for Congress said America needs legislators who aren’t afraid to try novel policy solutions.

Patrick Malayter is a retired CPA from Geist and one of nearly a dozen Republicans running for Indiana’s Fifth Congressional District. Congresswoman Victoria Spartz is running for another term in that seat after first saying she would leave Congress. He said he studied the platforms of the other candidates in the race and felt they were too generic and would not advance the interests of the country.

Malayter said the nation’s $34 trillion debt is by far his number one reason for running. He said term limits and a return to 1990s-style budgetary controls both are needed to get the debt under control. Malayter said requirements in the 1990s to offset spending increases with corresponding cuts elsewhere played a key role in the nation’s budget surpluses late in that decade. He also said closing tax loopholes would reduce the budget deficit and generate more revenue without having to change overall tax rates or the deductions ordinary Americans use. Malayter said he saw those loopholes up close during his years at a major national CPA firm.

“There are just a lot of really greasy loopholes in there that just benefit the top one-half of one percent of people in this country,” he said. “And there are hundreds of billions of dollars of those items in the budget.”

As for term limits, he said current members of Congress have no incentive to pursue spending cuts. He said he would rather take a chance on younger people with fewer ties to political tribes.

Malayter said he is pro-life but does not agree with decisions to ban abortion in nearly all circumstances and to defund Planned Parenthood, which provides a number of health care services unrelated to abortion. He said he would like to set a nationwide standard of allowing abortion up to about 12-14 weeks under any circumstances, a move he said would keep abortion safe, legal, and rare.

The primary is scheduled for May 7.

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