December 11, 2013
 
Dear Member of Congress,

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) urges you to oppose the budget agreement that increases spending above the sequestration caps when it is considered on the floor of the House/Senate.  The deal would increase overall discretionary spending by $63 billion above the $967 billion fiscal year (FY) 2014 sequester level that was set in the Budget Control Act (BCA), split evenly between defense and non-defense accounts, with $45 billion of that applied to FY 2014 and $18 billion to FY 2015.  The $1.012 trillion cap in FY 2014 is not only $45 billion above the $967 sequester cap for FY 2014, it is also $26 billion above the $986 billion level set in the continuing resolution (CR) that expires on January 15, 2014.

Regardless of whether or not the increased spending is offset with user fees and other revenue, Congress is violating the BCA caps and taxpayers would be better off if the CR was extended or the $967 billion cap was enforced.  Sequestration has resulted in the first decrease in the deficit in many years and has had no impact on the ability of the government to meet its most significant needs, nor has it had a negative impact on the economy.  

CCAGW appreciates the politics involved in making this deal, but nonetheless opposes the outcome.  Everyone agrees that sequestration was not the most effective method to reduce wasteful government spending and then-record budget deficits.  But if members of Congress were concerned that sequestration discretionary spending levels are insufficient, the solution is not to increase both spending and revenue; the answer is to trade cuts in entitlements and/or cuts in wasteful spending to fund essential discretionary spending within the caps.  

Indeed, there are at least a thousand reasons to oppose the trillion-dollar budget deal.  Recommendations to eliminate waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement are regularly provided by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the Congressional Budget Office, members of Congress and the President in his annual budgets.  Private-sector think tanks, advocacy groups, and companies also continually analyze federal expenditures.  For example, Citizens Against Government Waste’s 2013 Prime Cuts contains 557 recommendations that would save taxpayers $580.6 billion in the first year and $1.8 trillion over five years.  GAO has issued three annual reports that identify more than a thousand duplicative and overlapping programs.  According to Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), $295 billion could be saved annually be eliminating the GAO-identified duplication and overlap.  

Cutting out waste, inefficiency and mismanagement could therefore allow Congress to not only retain the BCA spending caps; overall expenditures could have been lowered even further in order to make room for effective and necessary programs.  CCAGW urges members to oppose the budget deal when it reaches the floor, extend the CR that expires on January 15 for the rest of FY 2014, and begin to cut the waste during consideration of the FY 2015 budget next spring.  

Sincerely,

Tom Schatz
President, CCAGW