Letter To The Honorable Harry Reid, Majority Leader Of The Senate

Letter

McCaskill Asks Reid to Support Deficit Reduction Task Force

U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill, along with nine of her colleagues, sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid urging him to support plans to create a special process that will better allow Congress and the Administration to deal with the long-term fiscal challenges facing the United States.

A number of pending proposals would create a Budget Task Force -- a panel of congressional Democrats and Republicans, as well as Administration officials -- that would make recommendations to Congress on deficit reduction. McCaskill and the other senators want Reid to support such efforts.

As a fiscal conservative, McCaskill has worked to control and reduce the federal deficit in other ways. She is currently working to pass Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) legislation, which she introduced, that would require Congress to pay for all new entitlement spending or tax cuts, rather than adding to the national deficit.

Below is a copy of the letter, which was also signed by Senators Evan Bayh (D-IN), Joe Lieberman (ID-CT), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Mark Udall (D-CO), Mark Warner (D-VA), Mark Begich (D-AK), and Michael Bennet (D-CO).

October 14, 2009

The Honorable Harry Reid
Majority Leader
U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Leader Reid:

The United States is nearly $12 trillion in debt--approximately the maximum federal debt allowable under current law. Congress will soon need to increase the debt limit for the eighth time since 2001. The House of Representatives has already passed legislation to increase the debt limit by $925 billion. And even with such a large increase, the debt limit will need to be raised again next year.

The Congressional Budget Office recently provided an analysis that indicates current policies will add an additional $10 trillion in deficits and debt over the next 10 years. Moreover, the first wave of baby-boomers began to retire last year.

Deficits and debt matter for everyone. In 2008, the American taxpayer paid more than $250 billion to our creditors in interest payments alone. Each citizen's share of today's debt is more than $38,000. Long-term deficits will drive up interest rates for consumers, raise prices of goods and services and weaken America's financial competiveness and security. The bigger our deficits, the fewer resources we have to provide critical investments in energy, education and health care and tax relief for small businesses and middle-class families. And the bigger our deficits, the more we must borrow from foreign creditors, including the Chinese, to finance our massive debt, raising serious questions about the ability of foreign countries to influence our economic and trade policies in ways that run counter to our national interest.

We believe Congress needs to adopt a special process to deal with our nation's long-term fiscal imbalances. We do not believe that action on these important issues will occur under the regular order in Congress.

Senators Conrad and Gregg have introduced legislation on this issue, as have Senators Voinovich and Lieberman, and Senators Feinstein and Cornyn.

We write to ask you to support these efforts. We strongly believe that as part of the debate to increase the debt limit, Congress needs to put in place a special process that allows Congress and the Administration to face up to our nation's long-term fiscal imbalances -- and allows for deliberation and a vote on a comprehensive package addressing these issues.

Sincerely,

Senator Evan Bayh Senator Mark Udall

Senator Joseph Lieberman Senator Mark Begich

Senator Michael Bennet Senator Dianne Feinstein

Senator Amy Klobuchar Senator Mark Warner

Senator Bill Nelson Senator Claire McCaskill