Open letter to House and Senate Republican leadership: preserve the sequester
Dear Speaker Boehner and Leader McConnell,
As you know, the recently passed Continuing Appropriations Act provides the government with funding through January 15, 2014. As Congress considers appropriations for the remainder of the fiscal year, we urge you to maintain the spending restraint established by the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA). This should be the principal goal for fiscal conservatives.
The BCA established limits on discretionary spending through FY 2021 including a cap of $967 billion for FY 2014. While the law is imperfect, the spending caps are perhaps the biggest policy victory in recent years for advocates of limited government.
Capping discretionary expenditures will not, by itself, solve all of our nation’s fiscal problems, but it represents an important step toward spending restraint. Unfortunately, President Obama has previously suggested that he would veto appropriations bills that fail to eliminate the sequester. Meanwhile, Senate Appropriators have completely ignored the post-sequester caps. It is imperative for fiscal conservatives to uphold the BCA and restrain spending.
If Congress reneges on promises to restrain spending just two years after the passage of discretionary spending caps, it would send a powerful message to the American people: Congress cannot control its profligate spending. This could, in turn, jeopardize other important conservative priorities, as well as the prospect for economic prosperity. Thus, we believe maintaining post-sequester BCA caps should be of the utmost importance. We hope you will work to preserve the law and protect taxpayers from further government expansion.
Brandon Arnold
National Taxpayers Union
Christine Harbin Hanson
Americans for Prosperity
Grover Norquist
Americans for Tax Reform
John Tate
Campaign for Liberty
Andrew F. Quinlan
Center for Freedom and Prosperity
Jonathan Bydlak
Coalition to Reduce Spending
Lawson Bader
Competitive Enterprise Institute
Peter J. Thomas
The Conservative Caucus, Inc.
Mattie Duppler
Cost of Government Center
Tom Schatz
Council for Citizens Against Government Waste
Myron Ebell
Freedom Action
Evan Feinberg
Generation Opportunity
Mario H. Lopez
Hispanic Leadership Fund
Seton Motley
Less Government
Gregory T. Angelo
Log Cabin Republicans
Andrew Moylan
R Street Institute
Steve Ellis
Taxpayers for Common Sense
David Williams
Taxpayers Protection Alliance
