Dear Representative Brady and Senator Braun:
On behalf of National Taxpayers Union (NTU), I write to thank you for introducing H.R. 3930 and S. 2245, the Maximizing America’s Prosperity (MAP) Act. This legislation is an excellent step toward reining in runaway government spending, and reducing the nation’s unsustainable level of debt.
The U.S. is on a ruinous fiscal path, and spending is to blame. As the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently noted in its 2019 Long-Term Budget Outlook, deficits are projected to balloon between 2019 and 2049 because growth in federal spending as a percentage of GDP (36.2 percent) will nearly double growth in federal revenues (18.2 percent). NTU Foundation recently pointed out that CBO actually underestimated discretionary spending growth, since CBO’s “current-law baseline still includes Budget Control Act (BCA)’s spending caps for the next two years even though Congress and the President are working on a FY2020 budget deal that will significantly boost spending.”
With the federal government on an increasingly perilous spending trajectory, the MAP Act is critically important to restraining future spending growth. The MAP Act caps all non-interest spending, forcing policymakers to make difficult but necessary decisions to reduce both discretionary and mandatory spending. The legislation uses a “potential GDP” measure that will be more stable and predictable than the volatility in real GDP.
Importantly, the MAP Act also leaves Congress better prepared to handle emergency situations, by setting aside one percent of the budget for emergencies. This is far preferable to legislators’ current approach of responding to emergencies with supplemental appropriations, often months after these emergencies occur.
As NTU noted when you introduced the MAP Act, we believe this is a fantastic piece of legislation that begins to answer the question of how lawmakers can restrain federal spending in this time of enormous debt. Thank you for introducing the MAP Act, and should you have any questions, I am at your service.
Sincerely,
Brandon Arnold
Executive Vice President
CC: The Honorable Todd Young
The Honorable Warren Davidson
The Honorable Paul Gosar
The Honorable David Schweikert
The Honorable Van Taylor
The Honorable Randy Weber
The Honorable Roger Williams
The Honorable Ron Wright
The Honorable Jim Banks
The Honorable Kevin Hern
The Honorable Mark Meadows
The Honorable Ralph Norman
The Honorable Chris Stewart