Over 160 Lawmakers and Experts Calling for Comprehensive Reform
Update 4/4: The Blue Dog Democrats sent a letter to President Obama calling for a compromise on a long-term spending bill to prevent a government shutdown in order move onto "a more serious conversation about the structural issues that plague our nation's fiscal health."
Update 3/31: 6 business leaders have called for broad-based bipartisan deficit reduction. That brings the total to 167.
Today, over 64 prominent budget experts and economists wrote a letter to President Obama and Congressional leadership urging them to take action on our debt and deficits, echoing the sentiments of the letter sent by 64 Senators to President Obama, the Politico op-ed by 10 former CEA chairs, and 25 Blue Dogs in just the past 2 weeks or so. Of course, there are countless other experts, lawmakers, academics, and citizens across the country calling for comprehensive fiscal reform -- but we're just talking about some recent calls.
Today's letter, which was signed by many high-ranking former government officials, stated:
As you continue to work on our current budget situation, we are writing to let you know that we join with the 64 Senators who recently wrote that comprehensive deficit reduction measures are imperative, and to urge you to work together in support of a broad approach to solving the nation’s fiscal problems.
Signing the letter were four former Cabinet Secretaries (Paul O'Neill, Robert Rubin, George Shultz, and Jim Baker), ten former heads of OMB, CBO, GAO and the Federal Reserve (Paul Volcker, Alice Rivlin, James McIntyre, Jim Nussle, Rudolph Penner, Joseph Wright, Barry Anderson, Donald Marron, Chuck Bowsher, and David Walker), and countless other experts. (Click here for the full list of signatories.) A media conference call was held at noon today to discuss the letter and featured remarks from signatories Erskine Bowles, Martin Feldstein, CRFB co-chair Bill Frenzel, and CRFB president Maya MacGuineas.
Including the signatories of this letter, we are now up to 161 167 people calling for comprehensive fiscal reform. As Maya MacGuineas put it, "not only is momentum building, it is starting to feel unstoppable."
Click here to read our full press release.
Click here to see the full letter and signatories.