The budget reform package introduced by the House Blue Dog Coalition is a credible, balanced package that offers the potential for bipartisan agreement on meaningful reforms.  Many of the proposals in the package have bipartisan support or have received bipartisan support in the past.

The Blue Dogs' “Twelve point plan for restoring fiscal sanity” is a package of three legislative proposals: A Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution, legislation reinstating and strengthening statutory budget enforcement rules and changes in the rules of the House of Representatives to improve the transparency and accountability of the legislative process.

The Balanced Budget Amendment in the package is virtually identical to the version co-authored by Blue Dog founding member Charlie Stenholm which was passed by the House of Representatives as part of the Contract With America. The amendment would require a 3/5 vote to approve deficit spending or increase the government’s borrowing authority.  The amendment could be waived in times of war or threat to national security.  It includes hortatory language against making changes in Social Security benefits or revenues in order to get to a balanced budget.

The second component of the package is legislation reinstating and strengthening the budget enforcement provisions establishing pay-as-you-go rules and discretionary spending limits that were enacted in 1990 and extended in 1997 with bipartisan support.  The package would strengthen these rules by requiring a separate vote to waive paygo rules or increase spending limits, among other changes.

Proposals to reinstate paygo rules for all legislation which would increase the deficit received bipartisan support in the 108th Congress, but were rejected by the Republican leadership. There are encouraging signs that paygo rules may be regaining some of the broader bipartisan support they have received in the past.  In an interview earlier this year incoming Senate Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg expressed support for paygo rules.  The Business Roundtable’s position paper on fiscal policy took a step toward endorsing the concept behind paygo by recommending that reform of entitlement programs and balancing the budget by controlling spending growth should come before legislative efforts for tax reform.

The Blue Dog package would set discretionary spending limits at the overall levels proposed in the President’s budget for the next three years.  These spending limits are very tight and will require cuts in discretionary spending programs that will be unpopular with many Democrats.  However, by combining these discretionary spending limits with paygo rules that apply to all tax and entitlement legislation, the Blue Dog package ensures that the savings from discretionary programs will go to reducing the deficit instead of financing new tax cuts as would be the case under the President’s budget.

Finally, the plan includes changes to House rules which would improve the transparency of the process.  The changes include requirements for more information regarding the budgetary impact of legislation the House votes on and justifications for earmarks in appropriations bills, repeal of the “Gephardt rule” which provides for an increase in the debt limit without a separate vote, and increased oversight responsibilities.  Many of the provisions in the Blue Dog plan were included in the rules packages proposed by the conservative Republican Study Committee or the budget process reform legislation authored by Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle in 1999.