Americans for Tax Reform continues to support the Budget Control Act of 2011 after CBO released an updated estimate of the bill's budgetary impact. The only serious proposal that addresses the country's debt crisis, the Budget Control Act institutes real cuts, establishes enforceable spending caps on discretionary spending and requires a vote on a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution in Congress.

Most importantly, it fulfills the pledges made by House Republicans throughout the entire debt limit debate: No "clean" debt limit hike that ignores the government's spending problem, cuts greater than borrowing authority extended and no tax increases. Specifically, the House debt limit proposal:

• Extends $900 billion in borrowing authority (roughly enough for the next six months) in exchange for savings of $917 billion over the next ten years. This is a cut of about 8 percent of total expected discretionary spending for half of a year of borrowing authority.
• Removes outlay caps from the first version of the bill, reducing the amount of money actually going out the door in next year's budget. This limits budgeted spending to two percent annual growth while tightening the amount of actual spending allowed to occur in 2012. This results in savings of $25 billion next year alone.
• Proves that the House-negotiated FY2011 Continuing Resolution was a good deal for taxpayers - CBO's updated projections to include the deal show it will save taxpayers $122 billion over the next decade. Under the Obama budget, spending would have increased by over $400 billion in the same time.
• Requires additional real savings of at least $1.8 trillion before the President can request additional borrowing authority.

"Republicans have proven once again that they take the pledges they make to taxpayers seriously," said Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist.  "House Republicans didn't blink when their initial bill came in under projections;  they did what they promised to do and rewrote the bill to cut more. This signals more reform is down the road, but lawmakers need to take the first step in getting there. The House's plan to solve the debt limit debate is that necessary first step."

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Posted by Mattie Duppler on Wednesday, July 27, 2011 10:20 PM EDT

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