To Members of the United States Congress:

On behalf of Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies with more than $5 trillion in annual revenues and nearly 10 million employees, I am writing to urge you to oppose the use of Reconciliation procedures to adopt major new policy initiatives.

The budget resolution under consideration proposes to implement major new policies which if implemented as proposed would seriously damage our nation’s ability to recover from the recession and impair our international competitiveness in the future. Specifically we are most concerned with:

Health Care Provisions:

Business Roundtable has long supported comprehensive health care reform. We are concerned that the proposed health care initiative is funded by tax increases and cost shifts that undermine the bipartisan efforts that are underway to craft comprehensive reform of our health care system without the critical steps needed to improve our health care delivery system, reform the health insurance market and provide coverage for all Americans.

Energy Supply and Climate Change:

The proposed increases in energy taxes run counter to the nation’s need to greater develop all forms of energy supplies, including domestic oil and natural gas, as well as alternative energy technologies and conservation. The imposition of significant new indirect taxes on energy through a “cap and trade” system without carefully considering the impact of these costs on our economy, particularly energy intensive manufacturing sectors and failure to mitigate these impacts, could have a significant negative effect on economic growth.

Corporate Taxes:

The proposed resolution includes a significant tax increase on business in a manner that will harm U.S. corporations’ ability to compete on a level basis with foreign corporations by allowing the double taxation of income earned abroad. In addition, it contains provisions that change accounting practices that have been in place for a long period of time and raises the tax rate on dividends which are vital to millions of shareholders who are retired.

These three areas: health care reform, energy production and climate change, and the competitiveness of our corporate tax system are serious issues that deserve thoughtful consideration by the Congress on a bipartisan basis. While the House Budget Resolution only subjects one of the issues to reconciliation, we are concerned that its use will be expanded during the legislative process. By using the Budget Reconciliation process to address these issues we believe that the Congress runs the substantial risk of enacting provisions that will not only not solve the problems, but also seriously jeopardize economic recovery, economic growth and job creation in the future. We urge you to oppose using this process to address these issues and allow careful consideration through the relevant committees of jurisdiction and the full Congress and not prejudge outcomes that could harm our economy.

Sincerely,
John J. Castellani