(WASHINGTON, March 19, 2013) – Independent Sector is deeply concerned that the fiscal year 2014 House budget resolution relies almost exclusively on deep spending cuts as its solution to putting our nation on a more sustainable fiscal path.
 
The IS Guiding Principles for Deficit Reduction and Tax Reform affirm that as a matter of fairness and effectiveness, steps taken to address the nation’s fiscal challenges should favor policies that will not exacerbate income inequality or increase poverty, and that efforts to reduce annual deficits should include additional revenue that maintains or increases the progressivity of the tax code, as well as reduced spending in both discretionary and mandatory programs.
 
We are particularly concerned that the impact of the measure’s spending reductions, which total $5.7 trillion over the next 10 years when compared to current policies, would fall disproportionately on the most vulnerable members of our society. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that 66 percent of these cuts, or roughly $3.3 trillion, would come from programs serving low-income individuals. These include $2.6 trillion in reductions to Medicaid and health care services and insurance credits included in the Affordable Care Act, $135 billion in cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), $325 billion in other mandatory programs, and $235 billion in discretionary spending for low-income programs on top of the discretionary caps put into place by the Budget Control Act of 2011.
 
We are further concerned that the budget resolution’s tax reform-related proposals would net no additional revenue, while also making the tax code less progressive by disproportionately lowering marginal taxes for high-income individuals through a two-tiered tax system. At the same time, the measure leaves in place the devastating and indiscriminate automatic, across-the-board sequestration spending cuts, while adjusting funding levels underneath the caps to provide a greater cushion for defense spending at the expense of non-defense discretionary programs, including those that fund child care and low-income housing assistance, education and basic skills training, the arts, and national service. These proposed changes not only violate the intent of the sequester to apply equally the pain of fiscal austerity across the federal ledger, they also come at the expense of those with the greatest needs.

We urge the House to reject policies that would unduly shift the burden of deficit reduction and economic recovery to low-income individuals and the most vulnerable in our society.

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