Growls

With HT’s to American Thinker and Big Government, we learn that Reuters reported yesterday that “Democrats want tax hikes to be the first item negotiated in "super committee" deficit-reduction talks, trying to force Republicans to confront an issue at the heart of this year's budget fights, sources told Reuters.” A bit of background from the Reuters report:

“The panel has the task of finding ways of cutting the deficit by at least $1.2 trillion over 10 years. If it fails to agree on a plan by November 23, automatic spending cuts will be triggered, beginning in 2013.

“If Democrats hold firm to their demand for taxes to be discussed first, that could make it hard for the committee to make the tight November deadline. Congress is due to vote on the panel's recommendations by December 23.”

The story is based almost entirely on anonymous sources, both Republican and Democratic. Here’s more from Reuters:

“Budget and tax specialists in the private sector are predicting arduous negotiations that could end with a partial deal at best in which the committee agrees on some savings, with the balance achieved by the automatic spending cuts.

“Failure by the committee to agree on a comprehensive deficit reduction deal could lead to a further downgrade of the stellar government credit rating, a move that in turn could damage a global economy struggling to right itself after a deep recession."

Although there may be no agreement on what gets “negotiated first,” it makes sense to pick the “lowest fruit” first -- a job that has already been done.

Two groups with “widely divergent views on many tax and fiscal issues . . . have joined forces to identify federal programs that both Republican and Democratic lawmakers should recognize as wasteful and inefficient uses of taxpayer dollars.” In this National Taxpayers Union September 15, 2011 press release (read the US PIRG’s press release if you prefer), we learn of “a new study . . . by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG) and the National Taxpayers Union (NTU),” which “provides the panel with a great place to start: more than $1 trillion of spending cuts with appeal from across the political spectrum.” Here’s a very brief summary of the 54 “specific cuts in federal spending” advocated in the U.S. PIRG/NTU study:

• 214.9 billion in savings from eliminating wasteful subsidies to agribusiness and other corporations

• $428.8 billion in savings from ending low-priority or unnecessary military programs

• $232.3 billion in savings from improvements to program execution and government operations

• $132.1 billion in savings from reforms to major entitlement programs

Here is what the co-authors have to say about the study:

• Andrew Moylan, Vice President of Government Affairs for the National Taxpayers Union: “Though it gets drowned out by the din of Washington’s partisan rancor, there is actually a large amount of agreement between watchdog groups both right and left about where the waste is in the budget. We hope this report can aid the Super Committee in the difficult task of repairing the federal balance sheet by giving them suggestions with widespread support.”

• Dan Smith, U.S. PIRG Tax and Budget Associate: “In an effort to address the deficit, we too often forget to differentiate between the good and the bad; between public priorities and special interest handouts . . . “These recommendations correct years of insider lobbying that has benefited narrow interests allowing room either for investment in valued programs or deficit reduction.”

The Supercommittee may even be able to complete their work far in advance of their November 23 deadline since a third watchdog group -- Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS) -- has put together a 35-page report of $1.53 trillion in “Super Cuts for the Super Committee." In addition they have compiled over $200 billion in “More Common Sense Cuts” by “eliminating potential future spending that may not be included in the baseline.”

As Rick Moran blogged at American Thinker today:

“Consider: Over the next 10 years the federal government will spend over $40 trillion. The idea that there is not $1.2 trillion out of that mind boggling sum to cut without raising taxes a dime is beyond belief. There is probably 5 times that amount that could be cut without raising taxes - if we had a congress and political parties with the spine to do it.”

Read the entire 18-page report “Toward Common Ground: Bridging the Political Divide with Deficit Reduction Recommendations for the Super Committee” (requires Adobe) from U.S. PIRG and NTU. Then contact the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (use their “contact form”) to send the 12 members your suggestions of what they can do to reduce the deficit. They even promise to “incorporate your guidance in their work.” Tell them to start with the US PIRG/NTU spending cuts, and then continue with the TCS "super cuts" and "more cuts."