In the latest sign that cutting unnecessary government spending is finally becoming en vogue with more policy groups, the National Taxpayers Union and US PIRG, two groups on opposite sides of the political spectrum have co-authored a new study making recommendation for more than $1 trillion in spending cuts. The report, titled “Toward Common Ground,” makes several specific suggestions that NTU and PIRG believe are common-sense, bipartisan cuts to government spending.
While the two groups have widely divergent views on many tax and fiscal issues, they have joined forces to identify federal programs that both Republican and Democratic lawmakers should recognize as wasteful and inefficient uses of taxpayer dollars.
The U.S. PIRG and NTU study identifies 54 specific cuts in federal spending, including:
- $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 in savings from reforms to major entitlement programs
In their press release announcing the report, both Andrew Moylan, Vice President of Government Affairs for the National Taxpayers Union, and Dan Smith, U.S. PIRG Tax and Budget Associate agree that more common ground exists across the aisle on spending cuts that most would believe.
Co-author Andrew Moylan, Vice President of Government Affairs for the National Taxpayers Union, added, “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.”
“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,” said co-author Dan Smith, U.S. PIRG Tax and Budget Associate. “These recommendations correct years of insider lobbying that has benefited narrow interests allowing room either for investment in valued programs or deficit reduction.”
The joint NTU and US PIRG report is available online at: http://www.ntu.org/commonground.
