The Moment of Truth: Report of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform

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WASHINGTON – The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, the bi-partisan commission charged with identifying policies to improve the fiscal situation of the federal budget in the medium term and to achieve long-term fiscal sustainability, will hold its next public meeting on Wednesday, September 29 at 9:30am ET in the Dirksen Senate Office Building. The 18-member commission will hear from three witnesses:

• Dr. Paul Posner, Director of the Public Administration Program, George Mason University,
• Janet St. Laurent, Managing Director, Defense Capabilities and Management, Government Accountability Office
• Patricia Dalton, Managing Director, Natural Resources and Environment, Government Accountability Office

Dr. Posner will discuss performance budgeting. Ms. St. Laurent and Ms. Dalton will discuss finding potential budget savings from addressing duplication and overlap and eliminating wasteful spending.

WHO: The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform

WHAT: Public meeting to discuss budgetary issues and budget reform ideas

WHEN: Wednesday, September 29th, 2010, 9:30am – 12:00pm ET

WHERE: Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 608

WEB: Watch the meeting live at www.whitehouse.gov/live

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WASHINGTON – The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, the bi-partisan commission charged with identifying policies to improve the fiscal situation of the federal budget in the medium term and to achieve long-term fiscal sustainability, held a public forum on Wednesday, June 30 and heard from 75 different groups, think tanks, policy experts and individual citizens.“We were heartened by the turnout of the young, the old, the everyday folks, people from think tanks, advocates and people from across the spectrum who came to speak to us. It shows us that the American people truly care about our mission and our country. This is exactly what we’re looking for: ideas on how we can accomplish the goals the president has laid out for us,” said Co-Chairs Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles.

The 18- member National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform will make recommendations to Congress by December 1, 2010 to put the budget in primary balance so that all operations and programs for the federal government are paid for (achieving deficits of about 3 percent of GDP) by 2015 and to meaningfully improve the long-term fiscal outlook. For more information, please visit: www.fiscalcommission.gov

Below is a list of all 75 groups and individuals that testified:

• AFL-CIO
• ASCFME
• Alliance for Retired Americans
• America Speaks
• American Academy of Pediatrics
• American Association of University Women
• Americans for Tax Reform
• Association of American Universities
• Bread for the World
• Business Coalition for Fair Competition
• Business Roundtable
• California Retired Teachers Association
• Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
• Cato Institute
• Center for American Progress
• Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
• Charles Lyle
• Citizens for Tax Justice
• Coalition for Health Funding
• Coalition on Human Needs
• Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget
• Committee on Education Funding
• Concerned Youth of America
• Concord Coalition
• Consortium of Citizens with Disabilities
• Democratic Leadership Council
• Economic Policy Institute
• Financial Services Forum
• Fiscal Policy Institute
• Frank Restly
• Hanover Investment Group
• Healthcare NOW
• Heritage Foundation
• Immigration Policy Center
• Institute for America’s Future
• Institute for Women’s Policy Research
• Joseph Guggenheim
• Mercatus Center at George Mason University
• Migration Policy Institute
• Military Officers Association of America
• National Academy of Social insurance
• National Active and Retired Federal Employees
• National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare
• National Council of Women’s Organizations
• National Disability Institute and Burton Blatt Institute, Syracuse University
• National Education Association
• National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
• National Immigration Forum
• National Nurses United
• OMB Watch
• Older Women’s League
• Paralyzed Veterans of America
• Peter G. Peterson Foundation
• Pew Charitable Trusts
• Physicians for a National Health Program
• Progressive Policy Institute
• Prosperity Agenda
• Roosevelt Institute at American University
• Service Employees International Union
• Small Business Legislative Council
• Social Security Works
• Speak Out America Now
• Stephen Moorhead
• Third Way
• U.S. Public Interest Research Group
• United Church of Christ
• Virginia P Reno
• Voices for America’s Children
• Wider Opportunities for Women
• William McClellan
• Women Impacting Public Policy
• Women’s Action for New Directions
• Yavapai Regional Capital
• Young Americans for Federal Debt Awareness
• Zero to Three
  

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Presidential commission to hear from economic experts

Washington – The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, the bi-partisan commission charged with identifying policies to improve the fiscal situation of the federal budget in the medium term and to achieve long-term fiscal sustainability, will hold its next public meeting on Wednesday, May 26 at 9:30am ET in the Dirksen Senate Office Building. The 18-member commission will hear from two witnesses – Professor Carmen Reinhart of the University of Maryland and Carlo Cottarelli, Director, Fiscal Affairs for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) – who will discuss debt and fiscal outlook both here in the United States and overseas.

Who: The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform

What: Public meeting to discuss current economic conditions

When: Wednesday, May 26th, 2010, 9:30am – 12:00pm ET

Where: Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 608

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9:50 A.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Good morning, everybody.

As a nation, we continue to experience the consequence of three distinct but closely related challenges.  One is a financial crisis, born of reckless speculation that threatened to choke off lending to families and to businesses.  And this crisis, in turn, led to the deepest recession we’ve known in generations –- costing millions of Americans their jobs and their homes, closing thousands of businesses and devastating Main Streets across the country.  And over the past two years, this downturn has aggravated an already severe fiscal crisis, brought on by decades of bad habits in Washington.

As a result, the day I walked into this door — the Oval Office — the deficit stood at $1.3 trillion, with projected deficits of $8 trillion over the next 10 years.  Partly, this was caused by the recession, which meant the government was taking in less while demanding — while demand for assistance for those who had lost their jobs was far greater.  Another contributor to our deficit has been the rising costs of health care.  Each year, more tax dollars are devoted to Medicare and to Medicaid.

But what also made these large deficits possible was that, for years, folks in Washington deferred politically difficult decisions and avoided telling hard truths about the nature of the problem.  The fact is, it’s always easier, when you’re in public life, to share the good news -– to tell people want they want to hear instead of what they need to know.  And, as the gentlemen behind me, Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, can attest, this has been the norm around Washington for a very long time when it comes to our finances.

Now, over the past year, we’ve had to take emergency measures to prevent the recession from becoming another depression.  And at a time when millions of people are out of work, we’ll continue to do what it takes to spur job creation while investing in a new foundation for lasting economic growth. But the emergency measures have added about $1 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years.  As a result, even as we take these necessary steps in the short term, we have an obligation to future generations to address our long-term, structural deficits, which threaten to hobble our economy and leave our children and grandchildren with a mountain of debt.

And that’s why I asked Congress to restore the “pay as you go” rule.  This rule says that Congress can’t spend a dollar on a new tax cut or entitlement program unless it saves a dollar elsewhere.  It’s what helped lead to the balanced budgets of the 1990s.  In fact, it was only by abandoning “pay as you go” that record surpluses turned into record deficits during the course of a decade.

Next, we’ve been scouring the budget, line by line, identifying more than $20 billion in savings this year alone.  We’ve cut or eliminated scores of outmoded or ineffective programs and begun to reform our bloated contracting system. We’ve also successfully challenged the custom in Congress of courting favored contractors by approving weapons systems the Pentagon itself said that it doesn’t want or need.  Because in these hard times we have to save where we can afford so that we can pay for what we need –- the same way families do.

Finally, I’ve proposed a freeze in government spending for three years.  This won’t affect benefits through Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security.  And it will not affect national security, including benefits for veterans.  But it will affect all other discretionary spending.  My budget ends loopholes and tax giveaways for oil and gas companies and for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans –- because we just can’t afford them.  And I kept my promise to pass a health reform bill without adding a dime to the deficit.  In fact, by attacking waste and fraud and promoting better care, reform is expected to bring down our deficits by more than $1 trillion over the next two decades.

But all these steps, while significant, are simply not enough.  For even as we rein in waste and ask that Congress account for every dollar it spends, this alone will not make up for the years in which those in Washington refused to make hard choices and live within their means.  And it will not make up for the chronic failure to level with the American people about the cost of the services that they value.

This is going to require people of both parties to come together and take a hard look at the growing gap between what the government spends and what the government raises in revenue.  And it will require that we put politics aside -– that we think more about the next generation than the next election.  There is simply no other way way to do it.

That’s why I appointed the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform -– based on a proposal originally presented by a bipartisan group of senators.  And today, the commission will have its first official meeting.  I am grateful to all of its members –- Democrats and Republicans, folks in government and folks from the private sector –- for participating.

I especially want to thank Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson for chairing the commission.  These two men may have different political affiliations, but they share a strength of character, an ability to work across party lines, and a willingness to tell the hard truths even when it’s hard.  These qualities will be essential, as will the courage they’ve already shown by taking on this assignment.

Now, I’ve said that it’s important that we not restrict the review or the recommendations that this commission comes up with in any way.  Everything has to be on the table.  And I just met briefly with the commission and said the same thing to them.  Of course, this means that all of you, our friends in the media, will ask me and others once a week or once a day about what we’re willing to rule out or rule in when it comes to the recommendations of the commission.  That’s an old Washington game and it’s one that has made it all but impossible in the past for people to sit down and have an honest discussion about putting our country on a more secure fiscal footing.

So I want to deliver this message today:  We’re not playing that game.  I’m not going to say what’s in.  I’m not going to say what’s out.  I want this commission to be free to do its work.

In theory, there are few issues on which there is more vigorous bipartisan agreement than fiscal responsibility.  But in practice, this responsibility for the future is often overwhelmed by the politics of the moment.  It falls prey to special interest pressures, to the pull of local concerns, and to the reality familiar to every single American — it’s a lot easier to spend a dollar than to save one.  That’s what, at root, led to these exploding deficits.  And that is what will lead to a day of reckoning.

But I believe, with the help of these gentlemen and this commission, we can begin to meet this challenge in a serious and thoughtful way.  And I believe we must, for the future of our country.

So, Alan, Erskine, thank you for your participation.  I want to thank all the members of the fiscal commission.  We’ve got a serious group in there of Democrats and Republicans, private sector and public sector, people who are sincere about this effort.  And I told them that we are serious about it as well.

I think I’ve shown over the last year that I’m willing to do things even when they’re not popular.  A lot of the decisions in terms of getting our budget under control may not be popular, but I think the reason that Alan and Erskine agreed to take on this assignment is that they were convinced I was serious about it.  And I’m going to be standing with them as they come up with the recommendations.

So, thank you very much, everybody.

END
9:59 A.M. EDT

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WASHINGTON—Today, Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, Co-Chairs of the bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, announced that Bruce Reed will serve as the Commission’s Executive Director.

Co-Chair Simpson said, “The Commission will benefit from Bruce’s years of experience in public policy to help us complete our challenging and crucial work. I look forward to working with him.”

Co-Chair Bowles said, “I am confident that Bruce’s deep knowledge of the federal budget will be extremely helpful in making our efforts a success. I am delighted to have the opportunity to work with him again.”

Bruce Reed is currently Chief Executive Officer of the Democratic Leadership Council. He served as chief domestic policy advisor and director of the White House Domestic Policy Council during the Clinton Administration. In that capacity, he developed and oversaw the administration’s agenda on welfare reform, crime, education, tobacco, and other domestic issues. He helped write the landmark 1996 welfare reform law, create the 100,000 police program, and enact President Clinton’s education agenda. In 1992, Reed served as deputy campaign manager for policy of the Clinton-Gore campaign. He previously served as policy director of the DLC and on the staff of then-Senator Al Gore. A native of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, he is a graduate of Princeton University and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University.

The bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform will build bipartisan consensus to put forth America on the path toward fiscal reform and responsibility. The Commission will make recommendations to Congress by December 1, 2010 that put the budget in primary balance so that we are paying for all operations and programs for the federal government (achieving deficits of about 3 percent of GDP) by 2015 and meaningfully improve the long-term fiscal outlook.

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