Washington, DC – U.S. Representative Heath Shuler joined with fellow members of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition today to announce the Blue Dog Benchmarks for Fiscal Reform, an aggressive blueprint for fiscal reform and deficit reduction that would cut the deficit by $4 trillion over the next 10 years.
“Now is the time for members of Congress on both sides of the aisle to come together and have a serious conversation about the nation’s long-term fiscal future,” Rep. Shuler said. “This proposal provides a starting point for that conversation and establishes the goals and framework necessary to balance the budget and get our country on a fiscally sustainable path.”
The Blue Dog Benchmarks for Fiscal Reform would make the largest deficit cuts in history by 2014, shrink federal spending to 2008 levels by 2013, reduce the size of government, and maintain a debt ratio to 60 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2024.
The proposal puts all options on the table -- including tax reform, defense spending cuts, and reforms to ensure the long-term sustainability of Social Security and Medicare -- as part of an overall deficit reduction strategy. Recent spending proposals in the 112th Congress have predominantly targeted spending cuts to non-defense discretionary programs, which account for only 15 percent of the total federal budget.
“The national debt is the single greatest threat to our country’s future,” Rep. Shuler said. “Rather than focusing on partisan agendas, we should be taking a bipartisan, comprehensive approach to reduce spending and get the nation’s fiscal house in order. Achieving meaningful fiscal reform will require making difficult choices, but we owe it to our children and grandchildren to make these difficult choices now for a stronger American economy tomorrow.”
The Blue Dog Benchmarks for Fiscal Reform has received support from several leading non-partisan federal budget watchdog groups.
Moment of Truth Project Co-Chairs Erskine Bowles and Senator Alan Simpson said: "We are so very encouraged to see the Blue Dogs get out in front of this issue by putting forward a very serious set of principles on how to attack this debt and deficit problem, and indicating their willingness to reach out to both sides of the aisle to start having a really honest conversation about the long term fiscal health of the country. The Blue Dogs have a long history of building coalitions across party lines, and being at the center of significant bipartisan reforms - and thus again with their leadership on this issue, the prospects for reform surely became a great deal brighter.”
Similarly, The Committee for Responsible Federal Budget said: “We commend the Blue Dogs for offering a sound framework and are hopeful that it will inform and encourage bipartisan action in Congress on a comprehensive, multi-year fiscal plan that puts the country on a sustainable course.”
Following are the Blue Dog Benchmarks for Fiscal Reform:
- Largest deficit cuts in history by 2014
- Cut the deficit by $4 trillion over the next 10 years
- Stabilize the debt and maintain a debt ratio to 60 percent of GDP by 2024
- Return to 2008 spending levels by 2013
- Reduce the deficit to 2.3 percent of GDP in 4 years
- Reduce the size of government
- Achieve deficit reduction with 2/3 spending cuts, 1/3 tax reform
- Everything must be on the table:
- Discretionary Spending Cuts – both security and non-security
- Tax Reform
- Entitlement Reform
- Other Mandatory Policies
- Process Reforms
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