Led by Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.) and Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas), the group of 30 representatives from each party told Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) that failure to act “could do irreparable damage to our country.”
“In addition, trust funds for some of our most critical programs will face exhaustion far sooner than we expected as a result of the current crisis. Trust fund insolvency threatens serious hardship for those who depend on the programs,” the group wrote.
The reforms should be included in the next economic recovery bill, the group stated, “to ensure we confront these issues when the economy is strong enough.”
It isn’t clear from the letter, however, if the group wants its recommended reforms included in a revised version of House Democrats’ recently passed $3 trillion relief bill or in that bill’s potential successor, the sixth such measure this year.
The recommended reforms include an annual debt report by the Government Accounting Office (GAO), special congressional committees to deal with debt and benefit rescue packages, and an overall strategy for dealing with the debt that includes “debt-to-GDP targets.”
Observers across the political spectrum, however, dismissed the group’s letter as too vague and unlikely to go anywhere in Congress.
“The idea that they would try to attach these budget reforms—modest though they may be in the grand scheme of the problems we are facing—to the next pandemic response is ridiculous and is going nowhere fast,” Jim Manley, former communications director to then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), told The Epoch Times on June 1.
“As long as Republicans are even refusing to discuss new revenues, there is nothing to talk about because entitlement reform alone won’t cut it,” Manley said, referring to increases in federal taxes.
“Members of the House and Senate decry deficits but love voting to increase them. Neither party has any moral high ground to stand on,” said Jimmy Williams, former senior economics adviser to Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.). “That being said, sure, let’s have yet another commission to offer up yet more recommendations that yet again fail to materialize.”
“The past four years have shown voters just don’t seem to care about the national debt and federal spending nearly as much as Washington, D.C. think tanks would have us believe—it just doesn’t move the needle in an era of sweeping unrest,” Burns said.
Skepticism was also voiced on the right, as Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) President David Williams told The Epoch Times that “taxpayers don’t want any more committees or reports, they want action. The more Congress talks about a problem, the less time they’re actually fixing the problem.”
Darling said he has “zero confidence in Congress doing anything but raising revenues through hidden taxes like a Value Added Tax (VAT) or some other sneaky way to raise revenue to close the gap, because true reform of entitlements is never actually on the table.”