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BRT Letter to Congress, President on the Budget Conference

The Budget Conference and the fiscal deadlines that follow provide an opportunity for Congress and the Administration to work together and demonstrate bipartisan leadership.  The nation would be served by its leaders finding common ground.  We need policy direction that boosts consumer confidence, promotes private sector growth and moves us toward a more effective and fiscally responsible federal government.

Crisis brinkmanship has obstructed the ability to agree on practical, compromise solutions to lead America forward.  Economic uncertainty created by political failure and inaction hurts American workers and makes businesses move more cautiously, slowing investment and hiring.

Business Roundtable CEOs, whose companies represent $7.4 trillion in annual revenues and more than 16 million employees, urge Congress and the Administration to take action to address America’s fiscal issues and establish an economic growth and job creation framework for 2014, including the following actions prior to the fiscal deadlines:    

  • Fund the federal government operations for the balance of FY 2014;
  • Address the debt ceiling;
  • Replace automatic sequestration spending cuts by identifying alternative spending reductions; and
  • Reach bipartisan agreement on a longer-term fiscal and growth framework that will lead to structural policy changes to strengthen the economy and spur job creation.

While we appreciate the difficulty of these issues, timely and significant action is required to avoid another crisis and to address our nation’s stagnant jobs’ recovery and slow economic growth.  The U.S. economy cannot afford the negative consequences of another debt ceiling or budget showdown.

The most pressing task before the Budget Conference is to reach agreement on a budget for the current fiscal year and provide for the replacement of the cuts imposed by the sequester.  The sequester’s across-the-board spending cuts are not a well-considered manner of budgeting or governing. 

But, Congress and the Administration need to do more than simply avoiding catastrophes and harmful spending cuts.  Now is the time to develop a policy framework for 2014 that will work toward strengthening the economy and preserving America’s entitlement programs.

Pro-growth, comprehensive tax reform is necessary to provide for a more competitive U.S. tax system that can boost the U.S. economy, resulting in increased investment and job creation.  Both House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus are ready and prepared to lead policymakers to enact comprehensive tax reform by the conclusion of the 113th Congress. 

Agreeing on a framework for pro-growth tax reform next year would be an extraordinary demonstration of leadership to boost the U.S. economy and unleash its full potential.  Every day we wait the U.S. economy falls further behind.  Other industrial nations are aggressively implementing pro-growth tax policies to compete for investment and jobs in the global marketplace.

America’s business leaders also urge you to work on entitlement reforms that would strengthen Medicare and Social Security and guarantee those critical retirement benefits will remain available for the next generation of Americans.  We must act to preserve the health and retirement safety net and rein in long-term spending growth by modernizing Medicare and Social Security in a way that addresses America’s changing demographic reality. 

Business Roundtable looks forward to working with Congress and the Administration on a successful resolution to the budget and fiscal challenges facing our nation.

Sincerely,

W. James McNerney, Jr.
Chairman, President and CEO
The Boeing Company

A copy of the letter to President Obama is here.

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