The Majority staff of the House Budget Committee released a working paper this week aimed at spurring political momentum for an overhaul of the annual federal budget process. The working paper, “Congressional Budgeting: The Need for Fiscal Goals,” urges lawmakers to adopt goals that would guide fiscal decisions on taxing and spending. The primary fiscal growth options include: limiting debt to 60% of gross domestic product (GDP), limiting the rate of increase in overall Federal spending to less than the economy’s growth, and defining the time period over which the goals will be measured and enforced. The secondary fiscal target options proposed by the majority staff in the working paper include: limiting the annual deficit to 3% of GDP, setting additional spending caps with tougher enforcement mechanisms, making authorizing committee spending allocations more effective, and ratifying a constitutional amendment guaranteeing enforcement of primary fiscal targets.
Congressional Budgeting: The Need for Fiscal Goals: