An alert from the National Taxpayers Union:
Although NTU strongly supports a freeze in overall spending until Congress gets its fiscal house in order by making President Bush's tax cuts permanent and reducing the rapidly rising federal deficit, that option is unfortunately not being considered. President Bush proposed a budget for 2005 that would have increased federal spending by 5.65 percent over the already high 2004 numbers. The Senate Budget Committee then produced a budget that would have made it very difficult to keep most of the President's tax cut package in place, let alone make it permanent.
Fortunately, the House Budget Committee has approved a fiscally responsible budget that should be able to pass the Senate as well. The House budget would curb spending by ensuring that Congress must "pay" for expansion of Medicare or other "mandatory" programs by cutting spending elsewhere; it allows most of President Bush's tax cuts to be kept in place, it reduces the deficit faster than the President had proposed, it accounts for the $50 billion in funding needed for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it keeps a tighter lid on spending than the President's plan. Although the budget proposal still contains $2.4 trillion in spending -- a number that is far too high for taxpayers -- the spending caps and budget enforcement measures, also proposed by the House Budget Committee but contained in separate legislation, make this the best available option by far.
The alert includes a quick and easy e-mailing utility and sample message you can customize.
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