This article may contain wording that promotes the subject through exaggeration of unnoteworthy facts .(August 2022) |
This article contains content that is written like an advertisement .(August 2022) |
Abbreviation | CRS |
---|---|
Formation | 2012 [1] |
Type | Advocacy group |
Legal status | 501(c)(4) |
Headquarters | 919 Prince Street |
Location | |
President | Jonathan Bydlak [2] |
Website | reducespending |
Coalition to Reduce Spending is a non-partisan political advocacy group based in Alexandria, Virginia, the United States, whose stated goal is to reduce Federal Government spending. [3] It was founded in May 2012. [4]
The coalition is led by founder and president, Jonathan Bydlak. Corie C. Whalen, Richard Lorenc, Max Raskin, and Chris Brunner serve on the board of directors. Rebekah Johansen serves as the organization's director of outreach. [5]
The Coalition Advisory Board includes investors Peter Schiff and Jim Rogers, political strategist Dave Nalle, Texas businessman Allan Shivers, Jr., and activist Julie Borowski. In February 2013, Herbert London, columnist Deroy Murdock, and Norm Singleton, former legislative director to Congressman Ron Paul, joined the board. [6]
The coalition's advocacy centers upon its Reject the Debt candidate pledge and its voter pledge. The candidate pledge states:
I pledge to the citizens of my state and to the American people that, except when related to a congressional authorization of force, I will:
One, consider all spending open for reduction and vote only for budgets that present a path to balance; and
Two, vote against any appropriations bill that increases total spending and against the authorization or funding of new programs without offsetting cuts in other programs. [7]
As of February 2014, 42 candidates nationwide had signed the pledge to reject the debt, 22 from 2014 races and 20 from special elections in 2013. [8]
During South Carolina's 1st congressional district special election, 2013, 15 of the 19 candidates in the field signed the coalition's pledge, including 14 of 16 Republicans and 1 of 2 Democrats. [9] After the primary, the pledge became a wedge issue in the runoff election between Curtis Bostic, who had not signed the pledge, and Mark Sanford, who had. [10] [11] Sanford later would reference the pledge in a debate against Democrat Elizabeth Colbert-Busch. [12] In the primary for the United States Senate special election in Massachusetts, 2013, Republican candidate Dan Winslow signed the coalition's Reject the Debt Pledge. [13]
Since that time, 30 candidates and elected officials have signed the Reject the Debt pledge. [14]
During the 2012 election cycle, 24 candidates nationwide signed the Reject the Debt pledge. [15]
In the United States Senate election in Texas, 2012 for Kay Bailey Hutchison's vacated seat, both Ted Cruz and David Dewhurst signed the coalition's anti-spending pledge. [16] [17] Ted Cruz ultimately won the runoff and the general election. In Georgia's 9th Congressional District, both Doug Collins and Martha Zoller signed Reject the Debt, with Doug Collins going on to win the runoff and the general election. [18] [19]
The coalition has published various editorials advocating for cutting federal spending. A USA Today opinion piece entitled "Responsible Pentagon cuts could work," suggested that "were the president actually inclined to find a "balanced approach" to deficit reduction, there exist a number of opportunities for substantial savings in the Pentagon's massive $680 billion budget that will not impact the country's ability to defend itself." [20]
Writing in The Hill's Congress Blog in a piece entitled "Missiles to Nowhere," Jonathan Bydlak argued, "like many government programs, MEADS is a classic example of how difficult it can be to cut spending once funding is appropriated and interest groups dig in their heels to defend pet projects." [21]
A piece published in National Review argued that "elected officials can’t keep taxes from rising unless they also curb spending." [22] A December 2012 editorial in RealClearPolitics cited Milton Friedman's claim that "the true burden of taxation is whatever government spends." [23]
The coalition strongly opposed passage of H.R.8, the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, asserting that "The real fiscal cliff — our $16.4 trillion national debt — is looming larger, and this bill only adds to our problem." [24] The organization also opposed suspension of the debt ceiling, with Coalition President Jonathan Bydlak stating, "By delaying a vote on whether and at what cost the federal government should be allowed to borrow more money, House members chose to deny accountability to the public." [25]
In November 2012, the coalition joined 20 other organizations in calling on Congress to allow sequestration to occur, [26] and in September 2012, called for letting the Wind Production Tax Credit Expire along with 63 other advocacy groups. [27] In June 2013, the coalition signed on to a letter along with 11 other groups urging Congress not to allow appropriations to exceed sequester levels. [28] In July 2013, the coalition joined 10 other groups in urging an open rule on the Defense Appropriations bill. [29]
In January 2014, the coalition joined on 11 other groups in urging Congress to repeal a duplicative USDA Catfish Inspection Program within the Farm Bill Conference Legislation [30]
That month, the Coalition to Reduce Spending also joined a broad group of organizations urging Congress to “remember that spending on ineffective weapons systems and wasteful Pentagon programs does not make us safer but spending smarter can make us stronger.” [31]
In February, the coalition signed on to a bipartisan letter with 36 organizations that criticized Congress for using the Overseas Contingency Operations budget to skirt required spending cuts. [32]
CRS President Jonathan Bydlak was featured in an interview with ReasonTV's Nick Gillespie, which characterized Bydlak as "The Grover Norquist of Spending Cuts." [33] Red Alert Politics also has profiled Bydlak, characterizing him as the possible "next Grover Norquist," in a personal profile focusing on the growth rise in prominence of the coalition. [34] The Fiscal Times [35] and Business Insider [36] have made similar comparisons because of Bydlak's work with the Reject the Debt pledge.
Scott Galupo at The American Conservative criticized signatories writing that a "statutorily required balanced budget is a stupid idea, and that anyone who signs this new pledge is terrifically insane and should therefore be disqualified from public office. Other than that, it’s a significant improvement on Norquist’s porous pledge." [37]
Ramesh Ponnuru, senior editor at National Review, wrote "while I wish it could be done, I don’t think it’s possible to pledge our way to lower spending." [38]
Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) is a politically conservative U.S. advocacy group whose stated goal is "a system in which taxes are simpler, flatter, more visible, and lower than they are today." According to ATR, "The government's power to control one's life derives from its power to tax. We believe that power should be minimized." The organization is known for its "Taxpayer Protection Pledge", which asks candidates for federal and state office to commit themselves in writing to oppose all tax increases. The founder and president of ATR is Grover Norquist, a conservative tax activist.
Grover Glenn Norquist is an American political activist and tax reduction advocate who is founder and president of Americans for Tax Reform, an organization that opposes all tax increases. A Republican, he is the primary promoter of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, a pledge signed by lawmakers who agree to oppose increases in marginal income tax rates for individuals and businesses, as well as net reductions or eliminations of deductions and credits without a matching reduced tax rate. Prior to the November 2012 election, the pledge was signed by 95% of all Republican members of Congress and all but one of the candidates running for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.
"Starve the beast" is a political strategy employed by American conservatives to limit government spending by cutting taxes, to deprive the federal government of revenue in a deliberate effort to force it to reduce spending. The term "the beast", in this context, refers to the United States federal government and the programs it funds, using mainly American taxpayer dollars, particularly social programs such as education, welfare, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
David George Reichert is an American politician, former law enforcement officer, and former member of the Air Force Reserve who served as the U.S. representative for Washington's 8th congressional district from 2005 to 2019. He is a Republican and a former elected Sheriff of King County, Washington. In September 2017, Reichert announced that he would retire from Congress after his seventh term.
"Read my lips: no new taxes" is a phrase spoken by American presidential candidate George H. W. Bush at the 1988 Republican National Convention as he accepted the nomination on August 18. Written by speechwriter Peggy Noonan, the line was the most prominent sound bite from the speech. The pledge not to tax the American people further had been a consistent part of Bush's 1988 election platform, and its prominent inclusion in his speech cemented it in the public consciousness.
The National Taxpayers Union (NTU) is a fiscally conservative taxpayer advocacy organization and taxpayers union in the United States, founded in 1977 by James Dale Davidson. NTU says that it is the oldest taxpayer advocacy organization in the nation. It is closely affiliated with a non-profit foundation, the National Taxpayers Union Foundation (NTUF). The organization has ranked politicians on their perceived fiscal responsibility, in the eyes of the National Taxpayers Union.
Fiscal conservatism or economic conservatism is a political and economic philosophy regarding fiscal policy and fiscal responsibility with an ideological basis in capitalism, individualism, limited government, and laissez-faire economics. Fiscal conservatives advocate tax cuts, reduced government spending, free markets, deregulation, privatization, free trade, and minimal government debt. Fiscal conservatism follows the same philosophical outlook of classical liberalism. This concept is derived from economic liberalism.
Richard Louis Hanna was an American politician who served as a U.S. Representative from New York from 2011 to 2017. A member of the Republican Party, his district was numbered the 24th during his first term in Congress; from 2013 to 2017, it was numbered as the 22nd district.
The phrase Bush tax cuts refers to changes to the United States tax code passed originally during the presidency of George W. Bush and extended during the presidency of Barack Obama, through:
The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform was a bipartisan Presidential Commission on deficit reduction, created in 2010 by President Barack Obama to identify "policies to improve the fiscal situation in the medium term and to achieve fiscal sustainability over the long run". The 18-member Commission, consisting of 12 members of Congress and six private citizens, first met on April 27, 2010. A report was released on December 1, recommending a combination of spending cuts and tax increases.
The Budget Control Act of 2011 is a federal statute enacted by the 112th United States Congress and signed into law by US President Barack Obama on August 2, 2011. The Act brought conclusion to the 2011 US debt-ceiling crisis.
The 2013 United States federal budget is the budget to fund government operations for the fiscal year 2013, which began on October 1, 2012, and ended on September 30, 2013. The original spending request was issued by President Barack Obama in February 2012.
The United States fiscal cliff refers to the combined effect of several previously-enacted laws that came into effect simultaneously in January 2013, increasing taxes and decreasing spending.
Budget sequestration is a provision of United States law that causes an across-the-board reduction in certain kinds of spending included in the federal budget. Sequestration involves setting a hard cap on the amount of government spending within broadly defined categories; if Congress enacts annual appropriations legislation that exceeds these caps, an across-the-board spending cut is automatically imposed on these categories, affecting all departments and programs by an equal percentage. The amount exceeding the budget limit is held back by the Treasury and not transferred to the agencies specified in the appropriation bills. The word sequestration was derived from a legal term referring to the seizing of property by an agent of the court, to prevent destruction or harm, while any dispute over said property is resolved in court.
A special election for South Carolina's 1st congressional district was held on May 7, 2013, to fill the seat following the resignation of U.S. Representative Tim Scott, who was appointed to the United States Senate by Governor Nikki Haley to fill the seat previously held by Jim DeMint. DeMint resigned from the Senate on January 1, 2013, to accept a position as president of The Heritage Foundation.
The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (ATRA) was enacted and passed by the United States Congress on January 1, 2013, and was signed into law by US President Barack Obama the next day. ATRA gave permanence to the lower rates of much of the "Bush tax cuts".
As a result of the Budget Control Act of 2011, a set of automatic spending cuts to United States federal government spending in particular of outlays were initially set to begin on January 1, 2013. They were postponed by two months by the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 until March 1 when this law went into effect.
The ongoing political debate in the United States Congress about the appropriate level of government spending and its effect on the national debt and deficit reached a crisis that was centered on raising the debt ceiling, which is normally raised without debate. It began in January 2013, when the United States reached the debt ceiling of $16.394 trillion that had been enacted following the crisis in 2011.
Jonathan Bydlak is director of the Fiscal and Budget Policy Project at the R Street Institute. He was previously founder and president of the Coalition to Reduce Spending and the Institute for Spending Reform, organizations that support spending reform and reduction. He is the primary promoter of SpendingTracker.org, a real-time government spending tracker, and previously spearheaded the "Reject the Debt Pledge," a pledge signed by candidates and elected officials who promise not to increase spending that is not offset elsewhere and not to vote for budgets that do not lead to balance. In 2020, the Institute officially merged its efforts with those of the R Street Institute.
David L. Norquist is an American financial management professional and former government official who served as the 34th United States deputy secretary of defense from 2019 to 2021. In May of 2022, Norquist was selected as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA).