Dear Member of Congress:
Elections have consequences, and election results have causes. One clear cause of the November election result was that the Democratic Party convinced large numbers of Americans that they would be more fiscally prudent than the Republicans had been. We the undersigned applaud their new stand, and stand ready to help.
Certainly the Congress under Republican leadership gave the voters plenty of reason to be receptive to Democratic overtures on spending. One simple example -- from 2001 through the 2006 Budget, the Republican-led Congress shamelessly raised its own spending by an average of 6.3 percent a year, more than twice the rate of inflation.
The recent Emergency War Supplemental demonstrated a clear lack of fiscal discipline on the part of the Democratic Leadership in Congress. And the Senate and House Budget Resolutions propose to raise taxes; create new "reserve funds" to raise taxes further; employ budgetary gimmicks they themselves have criticized; and all while ignoring the impending crises in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
We call on Democrats in Congress to live up to their campaign vows of fiscal discipline, and we call on Republicans in Congress to return to their foundational belief in smaller government and spending restraint.
If the Congress fails to strip away pork-barrel spending and hold the line on discretionary spending, or if it tries to hike taxes on the already over-burdened American taxpayer, then we urge the President to exercise his veto. The President must draw a clear line in the sand on spending consistent at least with the restraint he demonstrated in his February Budget.
This is a watershed moment for this Congress and for the balance of the President's term. The discipline of spending restraint must be established here and now. Failure to exercise discipline will be highlighted by us in the present and remembered by the American voters come November of 2008.
Sincerely,
John Berthoud
President
National Taxpayers Union
James L. Martin
President
60 Plus Association
Gary J. Palmer
President
Alabama Policy Institute
J. William Lauderback
Executive Vice President
The American Conservative Union
Tim Phillips
President
Americans for Prosperity
Grover Norquist
President
Americans for Tax Reform
Robert Painter
President
Bellwether Forum
David Hansen
President
Buckeye Institute for Public Policy
Solutions
Paul M. Weyrich
National Chairman
Coalitions for America
Mitchell B. Pearlstein, Ph.D.
Founder & President
Center of the American Experiment
Patrick J. Toomey
President
The Club for Growth
Matthew J. Brouillette
President & CEO
Commonwealth Foundation
Thomas Schatz
President
Council for Citizens Against Government
Waste
Bob Williams
President
Evergreen Freedom Foundation
Tom McClusky
Vice President of Government Affairs
Family Research Council
Matt Kibbe
President and CEO
FreedomWorks
Richard O. Rowland
President
Grassroot Institute of Hawaii
Greg Blankenship
Executive Director
Illinois Policy Institute
Thomas A. Giovanetti
President
Institute for Policy Innovation
Bob McClure
President & CEO
The James Madison Institute
Forest Thigpen
President
Mississippi Center for Public Policy
Dr. Don Racheter
President
Public Interest Institute
Paul Gessing
President
Rio Grande Foundation
Ryan Alexander
President
Taxpayers for Common Sense
John Taylor
President
Tertium Quids
Paul Guppy
Vice President for Research
Washington Policy Center