General
Total Cuts: $421+ million

Cuts Include:

Shift Congressional Pensions to Defined Contribution

Overseas Private Investment Corporation
Cut: $421+ million

General
Total Cuts: $421+ million

Shift Congressional Pensions to Defined Contribution

Congress benefits from an elaborate and lucrative pension system that is more generous than is available to government employees. While most Americans have a defined contribution system that they pay into like a 401(k) retirement plan, simply remaining in office is key to increasing the annual pension for lawmakers. Aside from the savings, shifting Congress from a defined benefit to defined contribution plan would more readily align lawmakers’ interests with their working constituents.

Overseas Private Investment Corporation
Cut: $421 million*

This corporation is a government-supported agency that subsidizes U.S. companies to invest in risky foreign markets by providing them direct and low-cost financing and insurance. While purported to help American small businesses compete in the global marketplace, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) actually provides subsidies to some of the largest multinational corporations in the world. In fact, many of the firms OPIC aids are large U.S. corporations, including McDonald's, DuPont, Citicorp, and Coca-Cola, all of which are very capable of obtaining loans and risk insurance in the private sector. Under current OPIC practices, Fortune 500 corporations gain healthy profits from their foreign investments while U.S. taxpayers are held financially responsible for any potential losses.

*Because each of these programs was subject to annual appropriations or was an expiring tax provision (that had been regularly extended), the ten year cost estimate was extrapolated based on available cost or spending data.