December 5, 2011

The President
The White House
Washington DC, 20500

The Honorable John Boehner
Speaker
U. S. House of Representatives
Washington DC, 20515

The Honorable Harry Reid
Majority Leader
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Dear President Obama, Speaker Boehner, and Leader Reid:

The failure of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to achieve agreement does not end the important work to tame our deficit and debt. In that spirit, we believe it is time for the American public to see the Committee’s final work products as well as the proposals developed during Vice President Biden’s deficit reduction talks over the summer. We urge you to release them online to the public.

Much of the Joint Select Committee’s deliberations occurred behind closed doors. In a recent Washington Post story (“Debt supercommittee might turn out to be a useful failure” November 23, 2011), Joint Select Committee member Senator Rob Portman described the Committee’s work, saying: “It’s all available now for the House and Senate to look at, as we continue on this necessary effort to deal with our fiscal crisis.” Unfortunately, it’s not available for the public to “look at.” The last, best offers of the two sides—as well as the Biden proposals—should enter the public discourse to be debated alongside the National Commission on Fiscal Reform (Simpson-Bowles) and the Debt Reduction Task Force report (Domenici-Rivlin).

Solving our nation’s fiscal crisis will require buy-in from the American public. Only after providing them with information and the various trade-offs necessary to get our nation on the right budgetary track can that be accomplished. We cannot afford to wait until after the 2012 elections to make these important decisions. Again, we urge you to release the deficit reduction plans and to demonstrate leadership and statesmanship to cut projected deficits by trillions of dollars.

Sincerely,

Ryan Alexander 
President
Taxpayers for Common Sense

Danielle Brian
Executive Director
Project on Government Oversight

Eli Lehrer
Vice President
The Heartland Institute

Tom Schatz
President
Citizens Against Government Waste

Sheila Krumholz
Executive Director
Center for Responsive Politics

Ellen Miller
Executive Director
Sunlight Foundation

Melanie Sloan
Executive Director
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington

CC: House Minority Leader Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader McConnell, Members of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction