(Washington, D.C.) -- The nation's top taxpayer watchdogs, the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste and the National Taxpayers Union, today sent a joint letter to presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama challenging them to act on existing recommendations that could save trillions of dollars over the next five years. The letter, signed by CCAGW President Tom Schatz and NTU President Duane Parde, noted that both candidates have pledged to go "through the budget 'line by line' in order to root out waste and inefficiency."
Both CCAGW and NTU "maintain extensive lists of programs that could be cut or legislation that would reduce spending." For example, NTU's research arm, the National Taxpayers Foundation, "has compiled a list of pieces of legislation in the current Congress that would reduce spending, including examples like H.R. 5957, which would eliminate $35 billion worth of agricultural subsidies over five years. NTUF also holds a list of 2,150 spending cut bills introduced in the last nine Congresses that totaled over $9.5 trillion, only 69 of which were eventually signed into law for a savings of $89.6 billion."
CCAGW's research arm, Citizens Against Government Waste, issues "Prime Cuts," which contains "701 spending cut recommendations across the entire federal budget totaling nearly $2 trillion over five years. It includes the elimination of such egregious examples as the Market Access Program, which funnels $231 million over five years to some of the largest and most profitable American companies for advertising abroad. It also makes tough calls, like canceling the NASA Mars Initiative for a savings of $11.5 billion over five years."
The letter urged the winner of the November 4 election to make the difficult choices on budget and spending in the face of a potential $1 trillion deficit. The groups also cited additional sources of savings through the Congressional Budget
The letter can be found at www.ccagw.org and www.ntu.org.
The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit lobbying organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.
NTU is a nonprofit, nonpartisan citizen organization founded in 1969 to work for lower taxes, smaller government, and economic freedom at all levels.