The 1% Budget Reduction Act
You may have heard radio talk show host Sean Hannity talk about the One Percent Spending Reduction Act of 2011 (H.R. 1848), which was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Rep. Connie Mack (R-Florida) or in the Senate (as S. 1316) by Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyoming). The bill is featured in the latest Taxpayers Tab (Vol. 2, Issue 35) from the National Taxpayers Union Foundation (NTUF).
The bill would “prevent a fiscal crisis by enacting legislation to balance the Federal budget through reductions of discretionary and mandatory spending.”
NTUF notes the “Congressional Budget Office estimates that the budget deficit for the recently completed fiscal year will be $1.30 trillion. This is the third year in a row that the deficit has exceeded $1 trillion.” NTUF says says the bill would only result in annual savings of $33.5 billion, but it adds the bill:
“ . . . would balance the budget and reduce federal spending to 18 percent of GDP by imposing a one percent cut in both discretionary and mandatory spending for each of the next six fiscal years. If Congress and the President fail to agree on the cuts necessary to meet the bill's spending targets, an across-the-board spending cut would trim expenditures by one percent.
“NTUF estimates that the legislation would save $67.0 billion over a two-year period. This is a two-year estimate rather than the typical five-year estimate. Under BillTally's methodology, NTUF calculates a two-year savings for such spending limit bills because NTUF is skeptical that Congress will abide by the cuts for an extended period of time.”
More information about NTUF and the National Taxpayers Union, click here. Previous issues of Taxpayers Tab are available here.