Liberal Group Joins Conservative Group In Calling for $600 Billion In Federal Spending Cuts

With the federal deficit at $1.3 trillion and conservative members of Congress talking about ways to trim government spending, a newly released report by the National Taxpayer Union (NTU) and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) proposes $600 billion in federal budget cuts over the next 5 years. 

In a "strange bedfellows" confab, the right-leaning NTU and left-leaning US PIRG have highlighted 31 specific examples of wasteful government spending that they say can be eliminated.

In the report, Toward Common Ground: Bridging the Political Divide to Reduce Spending, the 31 examples fall into the categories of ending wasteful subsidies, improving contract and asset acquisition, improving program execution and government operations, ending wasteful or outdated military programs and systems, and aligning military spending with current needs.

One of the report’s authors, Nicole Tichon, the Federal Tax and Budget Reform Advocate at U.S. PIRG, explained that the main reason for the proposal is to get the conversation started on cutting spending.

“We know that this is just one step of the way,” Tichon said.  “We have no illusions that this is going to solve all the problems. But it was not just about the substance for us, it was also about the process. Just showing that if you sit down and think these things through and take it seriously, there are places where we could find some common ground and actually get to some fairly decent numbers.”
     
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