Washington, DC – Today, Rep. Heath Shuler (D-Waynesville) joined with other members of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition to introduce the “Targeted Deficit Reduction Act of 2010.” The bill, another step forward in the Blue Dogs blueprint for fiscal reform, sets concrete goals to reduce the national deficit and encourages Congress to make efforts to meet those goals.
“This bill will force Congress to examine and address our growing deficit on a regular basis, and to work actively to decrease that deficit over time,” said Rep. Shuler. “Dealing with our government spending problem will be challenging, particularly in contrast to the runaway spending of the last administration. Setting tangible goals and benchmarks will help ensure that we get spending under control once and for all.”
“Making the necessary cuts to the federal budget will not be easy, but for Congress to pass budgets each year without concrete goals to reduce the deficit is ridiculous,” said Representative Betsy Markey (D-CO), Blue Dog member and lead sponsor of the legislation.
The “Targeted Deficit Reduction Act of 2010” would create a plan to reduce the deficit by more than $350 billion over 5 years, primarily by setting fiscal targets to stabilize the federal budget over the next decade. Specifically, it would set three targets: to balance the primary budget (balancing government spending with revenue) by 2015, and have a fully balanced budget (which includes the primary budget and the interest paid to service our debt) by 2020, and to reach a 60% debt-to-GDP ratio by 2020.
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