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By KEVIN LANDRIGAN
The Nashua Telegraph, March 28, 2012
U.S. Rep. Charles Bass is spearheading a bipartisan alternate federal budget proposal that would cut the federal deficit by $4 trillion over next 10 years.
The six-term Republican 2nd District congressman said Tuesday that he may also vote for the House GOP leadership budget of U.S. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., but predicts it will end up dead on arrival in the Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate as it was last year.
"I came to Congress a second time because I wanted to solve America's problems," Bass said. "We made our statement clear that raising taxes in a bad economy is not a good idea but we need to lead this nation."
The plan is along the outline of President Obama's debt commission led by former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles and ex-U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyo.
It has the backing of Bass and two other Republicans and two House Democrats.
"What these brave elected leaders have done is simply first-rate," Bowles said in a conference call Tuesday. "It is absolutely the right thing to do. They have put partisanship aside and really put the country first."
This budget outline would include simplified tax reform that would cut marginal rates across the board and raise about $1 trillion over a decade in part by getting rid of multiple tax breaks.
"I am not a fan of revenue as a resort to get us to balance. I am in favor of moving forward to resolve this problem," Bass said. "This is not a change in thinking. This is a way to get to resolution."
The outline includes savings of nearly a half trillion dollars in federal health spending by limiting long-term growth to the gross domestic product plus 1 percent.
It encourages but does not specify how to achieve bipartisan reform to ensure the long-term solvency of both Medicare and Social Security.
Limits on discretionary spending would be set at 1 percent below inflation after 2013.
Rep. Stephen LaTourette, R-Ohio, said the Ryan budget assures spending for the Pentagon will increase while programs such as transportation and the environment would face cuts of near 45 percent over the next decade.
"When is an ideal time to bring up something like this? I wish it had been brought up a year ago," LaTourette said.
LaTourette has a sister living in Nashua and he defended Bass' role as one of the leaders in bringing this group together.
"It is not without political risk, and I hope the people in New Hampshire recognize that," LaTourette said.
Bass faces a stiff re-election fight from Democrat Ann McLane Kuster of Hopkinton, who came within 3,600 votes of upsetting Bass for the vacant seat in 2010.
The Kuster campaign and New Hampshire Democratic leaders have already attacked Bass for backing the Ryan budget plan in 2011.
A year ago, Bass was among 99 House members known as the "Be Big or Go Home" coalition that embraced a blueprint along the lines of the Bowles-Simpson recommendations.
A year ago, those were pulled back at the last minute before a pivotal House vote.
Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., said that won't happen this time and that all other budgets are just posturing because there's no way to win support of both houses of Congress and President Obama.
"This has the three B's: it's balanced, bipartisan and it's big. Without any of those, it doesn't get the job done," Quigley said.
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