Portman plan offers leverage in budget debate

When the U.S. Senate resumes business next week, U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio) will introduce two tools to strengthen conservatives’ leverage and provide a pathway forward to real spending cuts during the debates over raising the debt ceiling and extending the Continuing Resolution (CR).

Portman’s Dollar-for-Dollar Deficit Reduction Act will prevent Senate Democrats from using debt limit increases to kick the can down the road on spending reduction, and his End Government Shutdowns Act will stop threats of government shutdown that increase the likelihood of chaotic, rushed budget agreements.

While speaking with Joe Kernen on CNBC this morning, Portman discussed his plan to bolster conservatives’ hand in the upcoming debt debate, saying, “Here’s the opportunity going forward, Joe. It’s not about not paying our bills. We’ll pay our bills.

"The question is: What should those obligations be going forward? We have to adjust. If we don’t reform our spending, of course the country careens into bankruptcy…I have proposed legislation that I’ll be introducing the first day we’re back that says let’s do a dollar-for-dollar reduction.

"So if we raise the debt limit a dollar, let's have a dollar reduction over 10 years that happens to get us, over 10 years, back to about 20 percent of spending as a percent of our economy, which is where we've been historically since World War II. So I think there's a logical way to get through this, and we have to deal with the mandatory side of the ledger, which is these very important but unsustainable entitlement programs."

According to a news release from the senator's office, "Soaring spending – now near $30,000 per household – is projected to drive a $10 trillion increase in the national debt over the next decade, and even larger increases thereafter. These reckless spending and deficit levels will drive up tax rates, reduce economic growth, and dump an unconscionable burden on future generations.

"Our economy cannot afford more of this administration’s pattern of kicking the can down the road on deficit reduction, and Washington must not squander this important opportunity to get its fiscal house in order. Sen. Portman’s Dollar-for-Dollar Deficit Reduction Act will not allow Congress to raise the debt limit unless that legislation also cuts the same amount of spending over the next decade. This act will reduce spending by more than $3 trillion over the next decade, reduce spending below 20 percent of GDP by 2022, and reduce the budget deficit to just 1 percent of GDP by 2022, paving the way for a balanced budget.

"Sen. Portman’s End Government Shutdowns Act will restore predictability and order to the appropriations process by automatically continuing funding for discretionary programs whose budget has not yet been enacted by Oct. 1. At the end of 120 days, that an appropriations bill remains unfinished past the Oct. 1 deadline, the spending level for each program, project, and activity will be reduced by 1 percentage point. Another 1 percentage point will be reduced every subsequent 90 days.

To read Portman’s proposal, go to: http://www.portman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=a71c47….