After having rejected the Conrad/Gregg commission amendment, the U.S. Senate will be taking up Sen. Harry Reid’s Pay-as-You-Go amendment, yet another flawed idea. ATR and CFA will be rating a vote against the amendment in our annual congressional ratings and have alerted members of the Senate to this fact.
From our vote alert:
Americans have become increasingly concerned with the unsustainable spending spree of the past few months. Consequently, Congressional leaders are looking for ways to cover their tracks as they embark on passing yet another massive increase in our nation’s debt ceiling. The latest gimmick: a statutory “Pay-As-You-Go,” as proposed by Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.).
The concept of Sen. Reid’s amendment #3305 may be rhetorically appealing – after all, the concept of paying for something ‘as you go’ sounds like a common sense idea. Ultimately, however, this type statutory PAYGO is nothing more than a fig leaf to provide political cover for tax-and-spend policies, and would in fact set the stage for higher taxes being touted as the only way to avoid across-the-board cuts in entitlement spending.