Bipartisan Policy Center Debt Reduction Task Force Co-Chair Alice Rivlin Testifies Before Senate Budget Committee

Highlights need 'for both parties to work together' to achieve a fiscally sustainable budget

WASHINGTON, Feb. 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Dr. Alice Rivlin, Co-Chair of the Bipartisan Policy Center's (BPC) Debt Reduction Task Force, today testified before the U.S. Senate Budget Committee. In her testimony, Dr. Rivlin discussed the dangerous trajectory of the national debt and the need for bipartisan solutions. Dr. Rivlin co-chairs the BPC's Debt Reduction Task Force with former Senate Budget Committee Chairman and BPC Senior Fellow Pete Domenici (R-NM).

"The U.S. budget is on an unsustainable track. There is no disagreement among the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), The Government Accountability Office (GAO), and leading private forecasters on where the budget is headed if we do not change course," said Dr. Rivlin, former Office of Management and Budget and Congressional Budget Office Director, in her testimony. "Complacency about the fiscal threat is no longer possible. Unfortunately, complacency has been replaced by strident partisan blaming -- not yet by a willingness to cooperate on crafting solutions."

"As our debt mounts, the risk grows that our creditors, especially the foreign creditors who own half our debt, will lose confidence in our ability to get our house in order and will demand dramatically higher interest rates to lend us more. Rapidly rising rates would derail the economic recovery and balloon the cost of servicing the federal debt," Dr. Rivlin stated in her testimony. "Moreover, while there are persuasive economic reasons for curbing the increase in our debt, the moral case is even stronger. It is unconscionable for today's Americans to live persistently beyond our means and pass our bills on to future taxpayers."

Last month, the BPC launched its Debt Reduction Task Force. The Domenici-Rivlin Task Force is composed of the nation's leading budget experts, former cabinet officers and elected officials, as well as representatives of the academic, faith, seniors, business, and labor sectors. The Task Force will release its budget plan by year's end.

"Former Senator Pete Domenici and I have recently launched a Bipartisan Debt Reduction Task Force that we hope will demonstrate that Republicans and Democrats can work together to produce a sensible, viable debt reduction plan," said Dr. Rivlin in her testimony. "We hope to support the efforts of an official Commission, whether statutory or created by executive order, and in any case to make our recommendations available to the public to foster discussion and debate."

To read Dr. Rivlin's full testimony, please visit our website.

About the Bipartisan Policy Center:

In 2007, former U.S. Senate Majority Leaders Howard Baker, Tom Daschle, Bob Dole, and George Mitchell formed the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) to develop and promote solutions that can attract the public support and political momentum to achieve real progress. The BPC acts as an incubator for policy efforts that engage top political figures, advocates, academics, and business leaders in the art of principled compromise. For more information please visit our website: http://www.bipartisanpolicy.org/.

SOURCE Bipartisan Policy Center

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