Press Release
NTU & U.S. PIRG: Supercommittee Squanders Opportunity to Cut Waste
(WASHINGTON, DC) – After the Congressional “Supercommittee” announced its failure to agree on
at least $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction, the U.S. Public Interest Research
Group (U.S. PIRG) and National Taxpayers Union (NTU), who jointly authored a
report on deficit reduction earlier this year, released the following joint
statement:
“Following
months of partisan bickering, the Supercommittee has squandered a major
opportunity to cut truly wasteful spending and special interest handouts.
“Some budget
choices should not have been tough. Though U.S. PIRG and NTU seldom agree on
tax and fiscal policy, we were able to find common ground on 56 specific
deficit reduction measures adding up to over $1 trillion dollars in savings for
taxpayers. These cuts represent the low-hanging fruit of the federal budget
that unfortunately will remain unpicked.
“This was an
historic opportunity to finally eliminate outdated and inefficient programs and
slash wasteful corporate subsidies that everyone should be able to agree are poor
uses of taxpayer dollars.
“The Super
Committee’s complete inaction leaves intact the billions of dollars in handouts
to big agricultural businesses and a program that pays to clean up old mines
that have already been cleaned, to name some of the more egregious examples of
waste.
“Though the
Supercommittee failed to seize an opportunity, Congress still has time to
tackle waste and cut where there is common ground. Our joint report offers them
a roadmap that we hope they’ll follow.”
Click HERE
to read U.S. PIRG and NTU’s joint report on spending reductions.
U.S. PIRG, the
federation of state Public Interest Research Groups, is a
non-profit, non-partisan public interest advocacy organization.
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The
National Taxpayers Union (NTU) is
America's independent, non-partisan advocate for overburdened taxpayers.
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