This is an “historic opportunity to come to a broad bipartisan solution that will control debt and ensure America’s future prosperity”

Aug. 8, 2011

Washington, D.C. - In a letter to House and Senate Leadership today, former Senate Budget Committee Chairman Pete Domenici and former White House Budget Director Alice Rivlin, co-chairs of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s (BPC) Debt Reduction Task Force, encourage Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Harry Reid, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to select members for the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction that will “come to a broad bipartisan solution that will control debt and ensure America’s future prosperity.”

In the letter, Senator Domenici and Dr. Rivlin call on the Joint Committee to build on the recommendations of earlier commissions, including BPC’s Debt Reduction Task Force and the President’s Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. Specifically, Senator Domenici and Dr. Rivlin strongly encourage that the Joint Committee consider the following recommendations of BPC’s Task Force: create a “simpler, pro-growth tax code that lower rates and raises additional revenues” and propose “extensive reform of the entitlement programs, including a complete solvency package for Social Security and an update of the Medicare benefit structure.” Finally, Senator Domenici and Dr. Rivlin recommend that the Joint Committee consider “a large payroll tax holiday” to spur needed economic growth.

While Senator Domenici and Dr. Rivlin are pleased that an agreement was made last week in order to avoid a default on U.S. debt, they strongly urge the Joint Committee to attack the “real drivers of our debt crisis – revenues and entitlements.” This is even more important following Standard & Poor's downgrade of the U.S. debt rating on Friday.

“As the Select Committee on Deficit Reduction begins their work in the coming weeks, we stand ready to help in any way we can, and we urge the [members of the Joint Committee] to tackle these challenges in a real, meaningful way,” concluded Senator Domenici and Dr. Rivlin in the letter.

Click here to read the letter.

Senator Domenici and Dr. Rivlin led a bipartisan task force of 19 former White House and Cabinet officials, former Senate and House members, former governors and mayors, and business and labor leaders, which released its bold, comprehensive plan, Restoring America’s Future, to address the nation’s debt crisis last November.

###

Economic Policy Project