National Taxpayers Union (NTU) strongly opposes the spending deal agreement as proposed by Senate and House leadership. News reports have touted a plus-up of “nearly $300 billion over two years.” Another $140 billion in Overseas Contingency Operations, $20 billion in non-defense emergency spending, and an additional $80-90 billion in disaster funding dwarves those initial estimates and the total price tag could be much higher as details emerge. Under the 2011 Budget Control Act (BCA), taxpayers were promised $1 trillion in savings over ten years. With this new deal, Congress could add more than that to the debt in less than one year.
NTU President, Pete Sepp said, “In the absence of other fundamental changes, increasing both spending and the debt ceiling on the massive scale under consideration could deal a major blow to the economic gains generated by the recent tax overhaul. Together with ongoing discussions of reviving earmarks, this deal threatens to undermine any lingering credibility for lawmakers who claim they want to control the spending side of the federal ledger and save their constituents from a fiscal meltdown.
Ahead of this latest contrived spending crisis, NTU consistently urged Congress to reduce spending, make good on the BCA savings, and enact more rigorous fiscal reforms that would be harder for lawmakers to contravene.
Pete Sepp, President