Courtesy Photo­Image Deb Fischer

Republican Senate candidate Deb Fischer says action must be taken immediately to begin to cut back on the federal bureaucracy.

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The bureaucracy is expanding its influence on every aspect of our lives, she said in a policy statement on her website.

Fischer’s five-point plan:

• Balanced Budget Amendment. Fischer says the first priority of the federal government is national security and everything else should be on the table. Once a balanced budget amendment is in place, Congress would be forced to set priorities.

• Repeal three major bills -- Healthcare reform, the Dodd-Frank Financial Bill and the No Child Left Behind education act enacted under President George Bush. Fischer says all three bills are unnecessary government involvement.

• Eliminate ineffective, duplicative programs and agencies. As an example, Fischer said there are more than 44 job training programs costing $30 billion, administered by nine separate federal agencies. She also wants to begin to eliminate ineffective agencies, such as the Federal Highway Administration, and make reductions in every department and agency.

• Congressional oversight of regulations. Fischer says when she was elected to the Unicameral, her first priority bill allowed the public to challenge a rule or regulation implemented by a state agency. She wants a similar process at the federal level. For example, Congress should have approval authority over any regulation that has a certain economic impact, she says.

• Audit the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve sets the monetary policy of the United States. This agency may be one of the most powerful federal agencies and it is one of the least accountable, she says.

Fischer says the constant gridlock in Congress has allowed power to shift to the federal bureaucracy, and it has grown in unprecedented leaps and bounds.

She says the federal government has become so far-reaching that it is suffocating businesses and individual freedoms in this country.

“The federal debt is more than $15 trillion. That is unacceptable,” she says. “We simply cannot continue to print money to pay our national debt.”

Fischer's opponent Bob Kerrey proposed entitlement reforms and budget cuts Thursday that he said would "move the nation toward spending levels lower than they were under President Reagan."

Kerrey called on Fischer to offer more specifics.