Watchdog Stresses Importance of Fiscal Restraint in Second Term

(Washington, D.C.) – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today congratulated President George W. Bush on his historic re-election.  The President has an opportunity to work with the incoming 109^th Congress to leave a fiscally responsible legacy.  CAGW recommended bold initiatives on the following issues critical to taxpayers:     

• Reduce the deficit.  The federal government ran a record $413 billion budget deficit for fiscal year 2004.  The President and Congress should freeze all budgets for non-defense/homeland security spending.   Elected officials need to root out the waste, fraud, and abuse in federal programs.  Fortunately, information is readily available in CAGW’s Prime Cuts 2004, which lists 592 recommendations that, if enacted, could save taxpayers $217 billion in fiscal 2005 and $1.65 trillion over the next five years.  Finally, Congress should reform the budget process:  Term-limit appropriators, pass a Taxpayer Bill of Rights, enforce procedural rules, and pass a line-item veto.
• Pork.  CAGW’s 2004 Congressional Pig Book identified a record $22.9 billion in pork in the 2004 appropriations bills.  Members of Congress have been treating the federal treasury as an inexhaustible dispenser of pork-barrel projects.  The overdue fiscal 2005 appropriations bills, combined with the pork-stuffed energy and transportation bills, offer a perfect opportunity for President Bush to exercise his veto authority.    
• Taxes.  President Bush’s tax cuts were the crowning domestic achievement of his first term; they eased the burden on taxpayers and spurred the economic recovery.  Congress needs to make the tax cuts permanent.  President Bush and congressional leaders support fundamental tax reform, and they now have a rare opportunity to eliminate the Internal Revenue Service and adopt a simpler, alternative tax plan.  The current tax system is riddled with loopholes and inequities, and is a model of inefficiency and waste.  A flat tax or a national sales tax would do wonders for the economy.         
• Social Security.  President Bush understands that the solution to the Social Security time bomb is to give Americans more control over their retirement.  Legislation has been introduced in Congress that would allow workers to divert their half (6.2 percent of payroll) of Social Security taxes to individually owned, personally invested accounts.  Time is running out for the President and Congress to act.  When Social Security begins running a deficit in 2019, personal retirement accounts will be less feasible because every cent of payroll taxes will go directly to retirees.    
• Health care and tort reform.  The cost of civil litigation to the economy is nine times higher today than it was 50 years ago.  Trial lawyers and frivolous lawsuits have taken a toll on the medical field by raising costs, forcing doctors out of business, and making health insurance unaffordable.  Congress should heed President Bush’s call for a cap on non-economic damages for medical malpractice awards.  Also, the tax code must be changed so that individuals receive a tax benefit for purchasing their own health insurance.  This will focus insurance companies on the needs of individual consumers instead of employers.

Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse in government.