Congress Should Reinstate and Strengthen PAYGO Rules

For Immediate Release

Recently, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer called for reinstating pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) rules in the House of Representatives. The following is a statement from Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget:

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget strongly supports calls from House Democratic Leadership to restore PAYGO rules and also urges policymakers to strengthen and closely abide by PAYGO. The idea that new spending or tax cuts should be offset is basic to budgeting. If Congress had followed PAYGO principles over the past year rather than debt-financing tax cuts and spending hikes, deficits wouldn't be approaching the trillion-dollar mark next year. Ultimately, lawmakers are going to have to enact significant spending reductions and revenue increases to fix the debt. In the meantime, we should all agree to at least stop the digging and not make the situation worse.

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For more information contact Patrick Newton, press secretary, at newton@crfb.org.

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