More Plans, More Ideas

CRFB has updated its table of submissions to the Super Committee with four new plans from September.

The first plan is from the Center for American Progress, which includes both general recommendations for the Committee and specific policy items. It's recommendations cover a wide range of budget options including cuts to defense, agricultural subsidies, and health programs, saving$1.5 trillion over ten years net of extending unemployment benefits and the payroll tax cut for a year.

The second comes from Third Way, a politically moderate think tank. Their plan enlists a number of policy changes, including switching to the chained CPI, reducing agriculture and defense spending, and reforming the mortgage interest deduction. Overall, the plan contains about $1.7 trillion in savings.

Next up is a submission from the Taxpayers for Common Sense, which would also save $1.7 trillion over ten years. Again, this plan addresses a number of areas of the budget, including agricultural and energy subsidies, defense spending, and a number of tax expenditures.

The final plan is from the Center for Science in the Public Interest. They go the Pigouvian tax route and call for an excise tax on sugary beverages. In addition, they suggest increasing the tax on alcohol or indexing the current rate to inflation. Using estimates from the Domenici-Rivlin plan (which includes a soda tax and an increase in the alcohol tax), CSPI claims that these two measures could raise $200 billion by 2020.

The list of submissions to the Super Committee is growing rapidly. Be sure to check back frequently for newer submissions.