(Alexandria, VA) – With the introduction of a new three-weekContinuing Resolution (CR), the House of Representatives has for a third timetaken action to prevent a government shutdown and reduce spending. Buttaxpayers deserve better than a series of stopgap measures that fail to defundthe disastrous health care law, ruinous greenhouse gas regulations, andwasteful earmarks. That’s the assessment of the 362,000-member NationalTaxpayers Union (NTU), which today expressed frustration with the inaction ofSenate Democratic leaders and President Obama toward passing a long-term planto pare back unsustainable spending.
NTU Vice President of GovernmentAffairs Andrew Moylan said, “While NTU conditionally supported the two-week CRexpiring this Friday as a good-faith measure to allow the Senate to completeits negotiations, that good faith has been squandered by Democratic leadershipin the Senate and the White House, who appear to have a strategy of dragging theirfeet and blaming any lack of progress on House Republicans for political gain.Since the House has already passed short- and long-term CRs, the time has comefor conservatives to demand that the Senate immediately complete a blueprint ofits own that substantially reduces spending for the rest of the fiscal year.”
During House debate earlier thismonth over a CR (H.R.1) designed to address government funding until the end ofFiscal Year 2011, NTU supported numerous key “riders” to the legislation thatwould further trim expenditures and protect taxpayers. These included proposalsto defund last year’s health care legislation, to strip as much as $3 billionin funding for an alternate engine on the F-35 fighter, to prevent the EPA fromimposing back-door “cap-and-trade” greenhouse gas regulations, and to removecostly “Davis-Bacon” wage requirements on CR-funded projects. Given theexceedingly modest level of overall spending reductions in that bill (about 1.5percent of total outlays this year), NTU considers these amendments to beabsolutely vital elements in any final legislative package.
NTU continues to advocate forsensible reductions that both sides of the aisle could agree upon; for example,testimony that Moylan delivered to the House Oversight Committee last monthhighlighted a jointreport between NTU and the liberal group U.S. PIRG that identified $600billion in such cuts. “Enough is enough,” Moylan concluded. “While its planwill take but a small step in the right direction, the House has completed itsduty to fund the government for the rest of the year. The Senate should takethis week to finish the task taxpayers have been demanding: pass a long-term CRthat puts a sizeable dent in out-of-control deficit spending.”
The 362,000-memberNTU is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization working for lower taxes, smallergovernment, and economic freedom at all levels. More information is available atwww.ntu.org.