The Honorable John Thune
United States Senate
493 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Senator Thune:
On behalf of the 362,000 members of the National Taxpayers Union (NTU), I write to offer our support for S. 3652, your Deficit Reduction and Budget Reform Act of 2010. This legislation would offer common-sense fiscal solutions to combat our ever-growing $13 trillion debt. More specifically, it would offer several elements of relief for America's taxpayers by eliminating wasteful spending, seeking budget reform, and implementing a new joint Committee on Deficit Reduction.
S. 3652 would freeze discretionary spending at FY 2008 levels from 2011 to 2020, a much-needed first step to getting our fiscal house in order, and would end unobligated stimulus spending on September 30, 2010 – a legislative move we have called for since enactment of the so-called "stimulus" in 2009. Your bill would also require a binding joint budget resolution that affords Congress much less latitude in violating its own rules. While the annual budget is already supposed to serve as an important blueprint for the policymaking process, a binding resolution would undeniably hold leaders to a higher standard of oversight and accountability. Finally, the new Joint Committee of Congress on Deficit Reduction would be composed of 20 members tasked with crafting legislation that achieves a savings in expenditures amounting to at least 10 percent of the previous year's budget deficit.
While we continue to support initiatives such as the Balanced Budget Amendment, which promise comprehensive institutional reforms to the budget process, S. 3652 takes us in the right direction toward fiscal responsibility by laudably resisting the unacceptable status quo.
We commend your efforts in introducing the Deficit Reduction and Budget Reform Act and pledge to work with you as the legislation moves forward.
Sincerely,
Jordan Forbes
Federal Government Affairs Manager