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Friday, February 5, 2010
1:45 PM EST
John Kartch

Obama Should Cooperate with Boehner and Cantor to Force Debate on Spending Reductions

On Thursday, House GOP leader John Boehner and GOP Whip Eric Cantor sent a letter to President Obama offering their help in forcing votes on proposed spending reductions and terminations.  The GOP Whip's backgrounder on expedited process for consideration of proposals to cancel spending can be found here.)

Today, ATR president Grover Norquist and Center for Fiscal Accountability executive director Sandra Fabry sent a letter to the President urging him to work with Boehner and Cantor to achieve these reductions and terminations. 

The text of the Norquist/Fabry letter is pasted below, and the PDF is here:

Dear Mr. President:
 
We write to urge you to take up House GOP Leader John Boehner’s and GOP Whip Eric Cantor’s offer to help you force a vote on your proposed spending reductions and terminations.
 
In their letter to you, Leader Boehner and Whip Cantor alluded to the possibility of invoking the process under the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which would allow a minority of the House to bring the discretionary program terminations and reductions contained in your budget to the floor. 
 
According to the stipulations of the Act, you can send up in the form of a discrete, specific message asking that the funds be rescinded. One-fifth of the House can bring a motion to discharge spending reduction and rescission proposals if the relevant committee of jurisdiction fails to act on the proposals. While not agreeing with all your suggested cuts and terminations, Leader Boehner and Whip Cantor have vowed that they will introduce each of your proposals as stand-alone legislation, and we urge you to take them up on their offer.
 
Taxpayers are fed up, and they have made their dissatisfaction clear over the course of the past few months – in town hall meetings, protest marches, and recent elections. As they are struggling to make ends meet and are forced to tighten their belts, they demand that their government do the same. Unfortunately, however, rather than seeing their elected officials work on meaningful legislation to reduce federal spending, taxpayers have had to witness drastic increases in the same, and just this week yet another massive hike in the federal debt ceiling. 
 
The crisis is now – and so is the time to act. While much more remains to be done, your termination and reduction proposals are a first step in the right direction.Consequently, we urge you to prioritize your spending cut proposals and work with Leader Boehner and Whip Cantor to ensure that they be debated by Congress in an expedited manner.
 
Grover Norquist, president, Americans for Tax Reform
Sandra Fabry, executive director, Center for Fiscal Accountability

 

 

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