TPA Joins Coalition Urging Lawmakers to Maintain Post-Sequester Spending Caps

The end of the year is approaching and Congress is doing what it does best: trying to spend your money. This week, under the guise of budget talks and congressional hearings, lawmakers and agency officials appeared to be sounding the alarm on sequestration yet again in an effort to undo the needed spending cuts put in place by the Budget Control Act of 2011. The goal of long-term spending reduction cannot be achieved without maintaining the all-important spending caps agreed to in the BCA 2011 agreement. With that in mind, TPA joined in an effort led by NTU and signed this letter along with Americans for Prosperity, Americans for Tax Reform, Campaign for Liberty, Center for Freedom and Prosperity, Coalition to Reduce Spending, Competitive Enterprise Institute, The Conservative Caucus, Inc., Cost of Government Center, Council for Citizens Against Government Waste, Freedom Action, Generation Opportunity, Hispanic Leadership Fund, Less Government, Log Cabin Republicans, R Street Institute, and Taxpayers for Common Sense urging GOP Conressional leaders to maintain the post-sequester budget caps in order to “preserve the law and protect taxpayers from further government expansion.”

Read the full letter below:

November 8, 2013

Open Letter to House and Senate Republican Leadership:

Preserve the Sequester

Dear Speaker Boehner and Leader McConnell,

As you know, the recently passed Continuing Appropriations Act provides the government with funding through January 15, 2014. As Congress considers appropriations for the remainder of the fiscal year, we urge you to maintain the spending restraint established by the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA). This should be the principal goal for fiscal conservatives.

The BCA established limits on discretionary spending through FY 2021 including a cap of $967 billion for FY 2014.  While the law is imperfect, the spending caps are perhaps the biggest policy victory in recent years for advocates of limited government.

Capping discretionary expenditures will not, by itself, solve all of our nation’s fiscal problems, but it represents an important step toward spending restraint.  Unfortunately, President Obama has previously suggested that he would veto appropriations bills that fail to eliminate the sequester. Meanwhile, Senate Appropriators have completely ignored the post-sequester caps. It is imperative for fiscal conservatives to uphold the BCA and restrain spending.

If Congress reneges on promises to restrain spending just two years after the passage of discretionary spending caps, it would send a powerful message to the American people: Congress cannot control its profligate spending. This could, in turn, jeopardize other important conservative priorities, as well as the prospect for economic prosperity. Thus, we believe maintaining post-sequester BCA caps should be of the utmost importance. We hope you will work to preserve the law and protect taxpayers from further government expansion.

Sincerely,

Brandon Arnold, National Taxpayers Union

Christine Harbin Hanson, Americans for Prosperity

Grover Norquist, Americans for Tax Reform

John Tate, Campaign for Liberty

Andrew F. Quinlan, Center for Freedom and Prosperity

Jonathan Bydlak, Coalition to Reduce Spending

Lawson Bader, Competitive Enterprise Institute

Peter J. Thomas, The Conservative Caucus, Inc.

Mattie Duppler, Cost of Government Center

Tom Schatz, Council for Citizens Against Government Waste

Myron Ebell, Freedom Action

Evan Feinberg, Generation Opportunity

Mario H. Lopez, Hispanic Leadership Fund

Seton Motley, Less Government

Gregory T. Angelo, Log Cabin Republicans

Andrew Moylan, R Street Institute

Steve Ellis, Taxpayers for Common Sense

David Williams, Taxpayers Protection Alliance