Washington, D.C. – In a letter today to Senate Budget Committee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) denounced Senate Republicans for agreeing to break the budget caps by $18 billion in order to increase funding for the Intermodal Surface Transportation Act (ISTEA) reauthorization bill.

“Taxpayers around the nation are about to buried in an avalanche of asphalt,” writes CCAGW President Thomas A. Schatz.  “There is something fundamentally wrong with promising to ‘find offsets later,’ and breaking the budget caps.”

In his letter, Schatz pointedly reminds Sen. Domenici that taxpayers are tired of worn out promises of future spending cuts.  “We’ve heard that line just a few too many times,” Schatz stated.  “We respectfully urge you to identify the cuts now and vote on them before ISTEA is reauthorized.”

Schatz also questions where Senate Republicans expect to find these additional cuts.  He asks if senators are going to be more willing to cut education, veterans programs, the environment, or defense.  “You have embarked on a slippery slope,” warns Schatz, “and without exercising extreme caution, you will run straight through the spending caps, destroying any chance to achieve a lasting surplus.”

Schatz does see one bright spot in all this mess, however.  Their short-sighted decision to break the budget caps is “making sure CCAGW stays in business.”

CCAGW is a nonpartisan, nonprofit lobby organization dedicated to enacting legislation to eliminate waste, inefficiency, mismanagement and abuse in the federal government.