How’s our new Congress doing with our money? Today’s report from Citizens Against Government Waste;
CAGW Condemns Senate Democrats’ Budget
Washington, D.C. -- Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today blasted Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad’s (D-N.D.) budget proposal. Senate Democrats plan to raise taxes and spending without cutting wasteful programs while ignoring the increasing costs of entitlements.
“This plan is fiscally irresponsible and economically unsound,” said CAGW President Tom Schatz.
Sen. Conrad claims that his budget will produce a surplus by 2012 without raising taxes. However, his projections assume the Bush tax cuts will expire in 2010, which in effect raises taxes. He leaves open the possibility of extending the tax cuts if they are paid for, but does not elaborate as to how that would be accomplished. Allowing the tax cuts to expire will create the biggest tax increase in history: $900 billion.
Senate Democrats rejected President Bush’s proposals to cut or eliminate 141 programs to save $12 billion over five years. Congress has no excuse for failing to identify and eliminate wasteful spending. CAGW’s annual Prime Cuts 2007, to be released in April, will offer 602 recommendations for saving $1.7 trillion over five years.
Under Sen. Conrad’s plan, domestic agencies would receive an average annual budget increase of almost 5 percent. The budget includes an additional $6 billion for education and $3.5 billion for veterans’ health care over the president’s request.
To offset this increased spending, the plan aims to increase government revenue by closing the so-called tax gap and offshore tax loopholes. However, many Democrats are opposed to the use of private collection agencies the most efficient and cost-effective way to collect taxes owed to the IRS. Furthermore, it would be far more productive to create a friendlier business climate by lowering the corporate tax rate so that companies migrate to, rather than leave, the United States. Simply put, the Democrats’ proposals will fail to offset the new spending.
Most alarmingly, the budget ignores the approaching tidal wave of entitlement spending, allowing it to grow until it eventually crashes on future generations; entitlement spending will reach 20 percent of the gross national product by 2050. After rejecting President Bush’s plan to save $95.9 billion in mandatory spending over five years, Democrats have no plan of their own to confront stark budget realities.
Sen. Conrad only slightly improves upon President Bush’s one-year Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) solution with a two-year fix. Short-term AMT relief allows policy makers to make rosier budget forecasts based on false assumptions.
“With a massive tax hike, spending increases without any spending cuts, and no long-term budget solutions, this budget is a bust for American taxpayers. Clearly, Democrats are not delivering on their campaign promise to bring fiscal responsibility to Washington,” Schatz concluded.
Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse in government.
Citizens Against Government Waste: CAGW Condemns Senate Democrats' Budget The Porkers are Back: Congress Fattens Up Emergency Supplemental
Washington, D.C. -- Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today criticized the House of Representatives for out-of-control spending and unrelated policy provisions in the emergency war supplemental bill. President Bush requested $103 billion in emergency spending for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and disaster relief. The House Appropriations Committee included an additional $21 billion in the U.S. Readiness, Veterans’ Health and Iraq Accountability Act, 2007, that is being marked up today.
“By passing earmark reforms, Congress signaled that it was serious about restoring fiscal responsibility to the budget process,” CAGW President Tom Schatz said. “It seems the commitment to reform was short-lived, as Congress fattens up the emergency spending bill with special-interest goodies.”
Below is a list of spending and policy provisions in the supplemental that are unrelated to military operations.
$500 million for emergency wildfires suppression; the Forest Service currently has $831 million for this purpose;
$400 million for rural schools;
$283 million for the Milk Income Loss Contract program;
$120 million to compensate for the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the shrimp and menhaden fishing industries;
$100 million for citrus assistance;
$74 million for peanut storage costs;
$60.4 million for salmon fisheries in the Klamath River region in California and Oregon;
$50 million for asbestos mitigation at the U.S. Capitol Plant;
$48 million in salaries and expenses for the Farm Service Agency;
$35 million for NASA risk mitigation projects in Gulf Coast;
$25 million for spinach growers;
$25 million for livestock;
$20 million for Emergency Conservation Program for farmland damaged by freezing temperatures;
$16 million for security upgrades to House of Representatives office buildings;
$10 million for the International Boundary and Water Commission for the Rio Grande Flood Control System Rehabilitation project;
$6.4 million for House of Representative’s Salaries and Expenses Account for business continuity and disaster recovery expenses;
$5 million for losses suffered by aquaculture businesses including breeding, rearing, or transporting live fish as a result of viral hemorrhagic septicemia;
$4 million for the Office of Women’s Health at the Food and Drug Administration; and
A minimum wage increase, which is the subject of separate legislation.
Supplemental appropriations bills are exempt from spending caps and other budget controls, which makes them magnets for projects and programs that might not stand up to the scrutiny of the budget process. Members of Congress know that the President is unlikely to veto a bill that is meant to meet the needs of troops in the field. The Senate version of the fiscal 2006 emergency appropriations bill included $700 million for the “Railroad to Nowhere” in Mississippi, but public criticism led conferees to remove that provision and others in order to pass a final version in line with the President’s request.
“Members of Congress will pay a price if they go back to the usual pork-barrel politics. Taxpayers must demand that Congress remove the waste and bloat from the final bill and stop the routine abuse of emergency spending,” Schatz concluded.
Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.
Citizens Against Government Waste: The Porkers are Back: Congress Fattens Up Emergency Supplemental