U.S. Corporate Chiefs Ask Washington for New "Competitiveness Agenda"

CED Announces Broad Support for Its Deficit Reduction Efforts and the Need for a Simpler Tax Code to Make the U.S. More Globally Competitive While Also Raising Revenue

NEW YORK, Oct. 25, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Committee for Economic Development (CED), the business-led public policy group that has been heavily involved in many of the most critical economic battles of the past seven decades, today called on Federal leaders to adopt a new comprehensive "competitiveness agenda" to deal in a systematic and constructive way with reviving the U.S. economy.

The competitiveness agenda was one of three main topics presented at CED's third annual Economic Summit conference, which was held today in New York City.

David M. Cote, Chairman and CEO of Honeywell International, said in his keynote address at the conference: "We need an American Competitiveness agenda. We need government that enables business in addition to regulating it. We need government that recognizes they don't create jobs (unless they spend our money) but importantly they can create an environment where jobs can be created.  We need government that pulls together rather than pulls apart, reveling in their discordant pluralism. We need to recognize it's important to train for the economic Olympics now and not just brag about how we won it twenty years ago. And we need to start now."

CED President Charles Kolb opened the Summit by stating, "We need the business community to act collectively and do what's right for this country, for our children, and for our children's children. Restoring fiscal health should be our foremost priority. I urge business leaders to join CED in calling for immediate action."

Other speakers at the Summit included:

• Byron G. Auguste, Director, Social Sector Office, McKinsey & Company
• Mark N. Greene, Chief Executive Officer, FICO
• Joseph J. Minarik, Senior Vice President, Committee for Economic Development
• Peter G. Peterson, Former Commerce Secretary, and Founder and Chairman of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation
• Todd E. Petzel, Chief Investment Officer, Offit Capital Advisors LLC
• Edouard Tetreau, Partner, Mediafin

CED also announced at the Summit that 77 of the best known and most highly regarded U.S. business leaders have now endorsed the six very tough standards it has proposed by applied by and to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction as it attempts to put together the budget deficit and national debt reduction plan mandated by the Budget Control Act that was signed into law on August 2.

The most recent endorsers of the six CED standards include Frank Keating, President & CEO of the American Bankers Association; Michael B. McCallister, Chairman of the Board and CEO of Humana; Thomas J. Quinlan, CEO, President and Director of R.R. Donnelley & Sons; Laurence D. Fink, Chairman and CEO of BlackRock; and Mohamed El-Erian, CEO and Co-CIO of PIMCO.

According to CED's President Charles E.M. Kolb, the 77 endorsers of the Six Standards clearly demonstrate that the business community will be playing a major role in the deficit reduction process.  "The men and women who have endorsed these standards have pledged to support and defend the members of Congress who help devise and enact a comprehensive deficit reduction plan that goes way beyond what the law requires," he said. "Their endorsement is even more impressive when you realize that they have agreed that spending programs and tax provisions that primary benefit business should be included in the deficit reduction discussions."
 

CED's six standards for the Joint Select Committee include the following key points:

1. The Committee must reduce the deficit by far more than $1.2 trillion minimum required by the Budget Control Act.
2. Medicare and Social Security must be on the table and be made sustainable for the long term.
3. The agreement must include additional tax revenues and fundamental tax reform.
4. The Committee must achieve substantial savings from non-Medicare, non-Social Security spending, including military and domestic programs.
5. The Committee must provide a boost to the U.S. economy but the effort must be simple and clean.
6. The Committee must put together a deficit reduction program with genuine bi-partisan commitment that will withstand political challenge not just this year, but for years to come.

The full list of endorsers can be found at http://www.ced.org/images/content/issues/federalbudget/ced_six_standards_for_super-committee.pdf.

About The Committee for Economic Development
CED is a non-profit, non-partisan organization of more than 200 business leaders and university presidents. Since 1942, its research and policy programs have addressed many of the nation's most pressing economic and social issues, including education reform, workforce competitiveness, campaign finance, health care, and global trade and finance. CED promotes policies to produce increased productivity and living standards, greater and more equal opportunity for every citizen, and an improved quality of life for all. www.ced.org.

CONTACT:
Morgan Broman
Committee for Economic Development
New York (571) 969-9530; D.C. (202) 469-7814
[email protected]

SOURCE Committee for Economic Development