Watchdog Groups Expose Budget-Busting Gimmickry

(Washington, D.C.) – On behalf of its more than one million members and supporters, the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) joined five prominent government watchdogs in sending a letter to President Bush to veto H.R. 3, the $286.5 billion Transportation Equity Act.

“President Bush had already compromised by raising his spending limit from $256 billion to $284 billion,” CCAGW President Tom Schatz said.  “Using budget gimmickry to raise the real cost to $295 billion makes a mockery of the President’s call for fiscal restraint.”

CCAGW, Taxpayers for Common Sense Action Group, National Taxpayers Union, the Club for Growth, Americans for Prosperity, and FreedomWorks all agreed in their letter to President Bush that exceeding the budget ceiling by $2.5 billion was “reason alone” for a veto.  The groups cited several other reasons for opposing the legislation:

• H.R. 3 includes an $8.5 billion rescission of past budget authority that takes effect on September 30, 2009, the last day the bill remains in force, which is a reduction in spending that is not likely to occur.  Added to the $2.5 billion Congress approved above the President’s “ceiling” of $284 billion, this would break the President’s spending limit by $11 billion.
• There are nearly 6,500 pork-barrel projects stuffed into the bill by members of Congress that total more than $24 billion, or nearly 9 percent of the total spending.
• The President’s expressed goal of halving the deficit by 2009 would be subverted if he signed the bill, especially in light of the rescission shenanigans.

“Unbelievably, President Bush has described this transportation bill as ‘fiscally responsible,’ ” Schatz said.  “A bill with such waste and budget gimmickry is not deserving of such a term and should be vetoed.”

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, the nation’s largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.