WASHINGTON, June 24, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In a POLITICO op-ed today, Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) touted the Bipartisan Policy Center's (BPC) Save-as-you-Go (SAVEGO) budget enforcement process. "To achieve long-term debt stabilization, we must enact a mechanism that would force Congress into a fiscal straitjacket and require savings each year. 'Save As You Go,' or SAVEGO, is just that mechanism."

Noting that "the path of least political resistance is to keep revenues low while offering a high level of services," Sen. Coons said that America's growing national debt is "a shared, structural problem." Coons sees SAVEGO as an approach that "soberly acknowledges the gravity of our situation" and recognizes that difficult policy changes must be made if political disagreements hinder a responsible budget process.

"It is widely recognized that entitlement reform is radioactive for Democrats, while raising revenue is political kryptonite for Republicans. In essence, SAVEGO places both painful choices into a lead-lined vault that would automatically open any year Congress fails to achieve deficit reduction," Coons said.

Sen. Coons also appeared on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" talk show today to explain his support for SAVEGO. "SAVEGO is a budget mechanism that's based on the success we had in the [1990s] when we had divided government—a Democratic president, a Republican Congress," he said. "We have to get our finances right in order to provide a strong foundation for our kids' future," Coons concluded.

The BPC's Debt Reduction Task Force, led by former Senate Budget Committee Chairman Pete Domenici and former White House Budget Director Alice Rivlin, released its SAVEGO budget enforcement process last month. The BPC's SAVEGO mechanism would set annual savings targets to put the nation on a path to fiscal stability, and mandate automatic spending cuts and reductions in tax expenditures if Congress fails to achieve those goals. Under SAVEGO, Congress would set forth the year-by-year amount of budgetary savings in different parts of the budget required to reach a mutually accepted debt-reduction goal.  

Read Sen. Coons' full op-ed here.

Watch Sen. Coons' appearance on MSNBC here.

Click here for the full SAVEGO proposal and to learn more about how the mechanism would work.

About the Bipartisan Policy Center:

Founded in 2007 by former Senate Majority Leaders Howard Baker, Tom Daschle, Bob Dole and George Mitchell, the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) is a non-profit organization that drives principled solutions through rigorous analysis, reasoned negotiation, and respectful dialogue. With projects in multiple issue areas, the BPC combines politically-balanced policymaking with strong, proactive advocacy and outreach.  For more information, please visit our website: www.bipartisanpolicy.org.

SOURCE Bipartisan Policy Center

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