“This debt ceiling package is far from perfect, but it does prevent a catastrophic default of the nation’s finances. Everyone has to recognize that the alternative to agreeing to this package would be a financial crisis that could send the economy into a downward spiral. We simply cannot allow a default to occur. Importantly, this package also ensures we do not create more uncertainty by threatening default again in just six months.

“This package provides significant deficit reduction over the next ten years, including a $900 billion downpayment and the creation of a new special committee of Congress to find an additional $1.5 trillion in savings. To be clear, the special committee’s $1.5 trillion target is not a ceiling on deficit reduction. In fact, the special committee presents another critical opportunity to achieve the bipartisan grand bargain on deficit reduction that has so far eluded us. And it offers us a chance to finally put the nation back on a sound long-term fiscal course.

“We ultimately need to achieve roughly $4 trillion in total deficit reduction. That is what is required to stabilize the federal debt and begin to bring it down as a share of the economy. And to reach that level of savings without draconian and unrealistic spending cuts, we are going to need a package that also includes new revenue, as the Fiscal Commission and Group of Six proposed. I hope the members of the special committee will carefully consider those bipartisan agreements as they develop their own deficit reduction package.”

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Contact: Stu Nagurka (202) 224-7436
Steve Posner (202) 224-7925