The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, created in February by President Obama, is charged with identifying policies that will improve the country’s fiscal situation in the medium-term and achieve fiscal sustainability over the long-run.
The National Low Income Housing Coalition joined more than 100 other national organizations in signing on to a June 30 letter to the Commission that was organized by the Coalition on Human Needs (CHN). (We also sent our own comments, here). The joint letter urges the Commission to adopt the principle that lower income people should not be harmed by its recommendations, and emphasizes that smart investments to help low income people will in fact strengthen the economy and the nation.
CHN has now opened this letter to state and local organizations. We urge your organization to sign the letter by Friday, August 27. CHN will give the list of new signers to members of the Commission, and will circulate the letter to Congress.
Click here to read the letter and see the national group signers as of June 30: http://www.chn.org/pdf/2010/DeficitComLetterSigners.pdf
Then please sign the letter:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/125/questionnaire.jsp?questionnaire_KEY=1061
Background:
The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform has been established by the President to make recommendations to substantially reduce the deficit by 2015. Co-chaired by former Clinton Administration Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles and former Senator Alan Simpson, the Commission has 18 bipartisan members. The Commission has been charged with making its recommendations by December 1. It will forward proposals to Congress if they are agreed to by 14 of its members. (For more info: http://www.chn.org/humanneeds/100511c.html)
While CHN and the signers of the letter agree steps should be taken to address a long-term problem, the organization calls for deficit reduction to be seen as a means to an end—the end being a strong economy with prosperity shared by all. We can fix the long-term problem through equitable and sensible revenue increases, and savings in areas such as waste in the military or in other areas. But we cannot fix the problem by creating roadblocks for millions of people to be productive participants in our nation’s future.
A Note from CHN about Signing the Letter:
You will be asked at the bottom of the sign-on form to say “yes” or “no” to the question, “Are you authorized to sign on behalf of your organization?” Please only sign if you are authorized, and then select “YES.” If you forget to answer this, we will have to contact you to make sure we should be listing your organization.
