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![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20120924215215im_/http://boehner.house.gov/images/bg-ico2.gif)
Noted Economists Praise GOP Pledge to America, Call it “Big Initial Step” to Sounder Fiscal Policy
Posted by
Press Office
on
September 27, 2010
Some of America’s most noted economists are among the voices speaking out in support of the newly-launched GOP Pledge to America, the new governing agenda built through a process of listening to the American people. The Pledge emphasizes the need to aggressively cut federal spending and stop the coming tax hikes in order to help the nation’s economy get back to creating jobs – an approach much different from the path taken in Washington in recent years.
Noted economists Michael J. Boskin, John F. Cogan, Allan H. Meltzer, George P. Shultz, and John B. Taylor have issued an enthusiastic joint statement of support for the Pledge: The ‘Pledge to America’ is a big initial step to a sounder, wiser course for fiscal and regulatory policy, including the proposals to stop the tax increases scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2011, to roll back spending to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels, and to require congressional approval of any new federal regulation that has an economically significant cost. The Pledge is a refreshing dose of budgetary sanity and a restoration of proven economic principles and common sense. Diana Furchtgott-Roth, a former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor who is now the director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Employment Policy, endorsed the Pledge to America in an op-ed published in the Washington Examiner last week: Rather than tax increases in 2011, the Republican plan would make all current tax rates permanent, to reduce uncertainty for consumers and employers. It would cut non-security discretionary spending to 2008 levels. Cuts include ending the Troubled Asset Relief Program; rolling back this year's 5.8 percent increase in Congress' budget; and placing a hiring freeze on all non-security government workers. In addition, Republicans suggest reforming the congressional budget process to make it easier to cut spending. Current rules are rigged to make it easy to spend money unnecessarily, and not so easy to cut spending. Former Congressional Budget Office (CBO) director Douglas Holtz-Eakin, now president of the American Action Forum, has also joined American Action Network president Rob Collins in praising the economic prescriptions put forth in the Pledge: [T]he Pledge to America – the result of an innovative social media project by House Republicans called America Speaking Out – accomplishes its goal of being relevant, timely and in-tune with the attitudes of a disappointed but ever-hopeful electorate. We expect a vigorous debate over whether the Pledge contains the 'best' policies, and we look forward to being an advocate for policies that reduce the size of government, encourage freedom and expand opportunity. Regardless of the outcome of that debate, it seems obvious that this new direction dominates the profligate, dangerous leadership shown by President Obama and the Democrats in Congress. Democrats have paid lip service to job creation, but continue to burden small business, hammer large corporations and grow only the government. Unprecedented federal deficits threaten higher interest rates and financial panic, health care reform intends to impose costly mandates and administrative regulations on businesses, and the uncertainty of tax increases at the end of the year reduce any incentive to grow. Led by House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio and Rep. Kevin McCarthy, Boehner’s chief deputy whip, the Pledge includes commitments to growth incentives with extensions of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts and a small business tax deduction. . .
The opinions expressed below are those of their respective authors and do not necessarily represent those of this office.
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