Dear Senator:
On behalf of the 350,000 members of the National Taxpayers Union (NTU), I write to urge all Members of the Senate to support the plan recently offered by the newly-formed Fiscal Watch Team that would offset many of the costs of hurricane relief by reducing spending by $125 billion.
The plan for offsets includes: freezing the cost-of-living adjustments for Members of Congress and most other federal employees (with the exception of law enforcement and military personnel), a two-year delay in implementing the Medicare prescription drug benefit, a requirement that higher-income recipients of Medicare Part B pay larger premiums starting in 2006 rather than 2007 as currently scheduled, elimination of $24 billion in earmarks from the recently-passed highway bill, and a cut of five percent to all federal spending programs except those which impact national security (with one percent set aside for funding essential programs).
The team currently consists of Senators McCain, Brownback, Coburn, DeMint, Ensign, Graham and Sununu, but all Members of the Senate would be doing the country a favor by signing on to this agenda. Not only is fiscal restraint of the utmost importance given record deficits driven by rapid spending growth; successfully cutting spending to offset the costs of recent natural disasters is also strongly supported by the American people.
Although critics of this approach will undoubtedly argue that hurricane offsets and budget deficits should be addressed largely by increasing taxes, this is economic folly. In the past year alone, federal tax revenues have risen by nearly 15 percent. Clearly, the problem in Washington is that spending growth has outstripped revenue collection during recent years.
Members are urged to sign on to this and other efforts to control spending and to come up with even broader plans that seek real savings in defense and mandatory budgets. Votes on this plan and other plans that would result in genuine spending cuts and/or fiscal restraint will be among the most heavily-weighted in our annual Ratings of Congress.
Sincerely,
Paul J. Gessing
Director of Government Affairs