Toward Common Ground

Bridging the Political Divide with Deficit Reduction Recommendations for the Super Committe

To break through the ideological divide that has dominated Washington this past year and offer a pathway to address the nation’s fiscal problems, the National Taxpayer Union and U.S. PIRG joined together to identify mutually acceptable deficit reduction of over $1 Trillion.

Report

CALPIRG

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

To break through the ideological divide that has dominated Washington this past year and offer a pathway to address the nation’s fiscal problems, the National Taxpayer Union and U.S. PIRG joined together to identify mutually acceptable deficit reduction. This report documents our findings. What follows is a general summary of recommendations that fall into four rough categories:

1. $214.9 billion in savings from ending wasteful subsidies,

2. $448.8 billion from addressing outdated or ineffective military programs,

3. $221.3 billion from improving program execution and government operations, and

4. $132.1 billion from reforms to entitlement programs.

Each specific recommendation includes an estimate of its savings over the next ten years, and a reference to the source from which the estimate was drawn.