March 31, 2011

President The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20500

The Honorable John Boehner The Honorable Harry Reid Speaker of the House Senate Majority Leader 1101 Longworth House Office Building 522 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Nancy Pelosi The Honorable Mitch McConnell House Minority Leader Senate Minority Leader 235 Cannon House Office Building 361-A Russell Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Washington, DC 20510

Dear President Obama, Speaker Boehner, Minority Leader Pelosi, Majority Leader Reid, and Minority Leader McConnell:

As you continue to work on our current budget situation, we are writing to let you know that we join with the 64 Senators who recently wrote that comprehensive deficit reduction measures are imperative, and to urge you to work together in support of a broad approach to solving the nation’s fiscal problems. As they said in their letter to President Obama:

“As you know, a bipartisan group of Senators has been working to craft a comprehensive deficit reduction package based upon the recommendations of the Fiscal Commission. While we may not agree with every aspect of the Commission's recommendations, we believe that its work represents an important foundation to achieve meaningful progress on our debt. The Commission's work also underscored the scope and breadth of our nation's long-term fiscal challenges.

Beyond FY2011 funding decisions, we urge you to engage in a broader discussion about a comprehensive deficit reduction package. Specifically, we hope that the discussion will include discretionary spending cuts, entitlement changes and tax reform.

By approaching these negotiations comprehensively, with a strong signal of support from you, we believe that we can achieve consensus on these important fiscal issues. This would send a powerful message to Americans that Washington can work together to tackle this critical issue.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

We agree with this letter and hope that you will work together to agree on a comprehensive, multi-year debt stabilization package.

Sincerely,

The Honorable Roger C. Altman The Honorable Charles Bowsher Former Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Former Comptroller General of the Department of the Treasury; Founder United States and Chairman, Evercore Partners The Honorable John E. Chapoton Barry Anderson Former Assistant Secretary for Tax Former Acting Director, Congressional Policy, U.S. Department of the Treasury Budget Office David Cote Joseph Antos Former Member, National Commission Wilson H. Taylor Scholar in Health Care on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform; and Retirement Policy, American Chairman and CEO, Honeywell Enterprise Institute International

The Honorable Martin Baily Pete Davis Former Chairman, Council of Economic President, Davis Capital Investment Advisers Ideas

The Honorable James A. Baker, III John Endean Former Secretary of the U.S. President, American Business Department of the Treasury; Former Conference Secretary of the U.S. Department of State The Honorable Vic Fazio Former Member of Congress Robert Bixby Executive Director, Concord Coalition The Honorable Martin Feldstein Former Chairman, Council of Economic Charles Blahous Advisers Research Fellow, Hoover Institute The Honorable William Frenzel Erskine Bowles Former Ranking Member, House Former Co-Chair, National Commission Budget Committee; Co-Chair, on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget

Ann Fudge David B. Kendall Former Member, National Commission Senior Fellow for Health and Fiscal on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform; Policy, Third Way Former CEO, Young & Rubicam Brands The Honorable Bob Kerrey William G. Gale Former Member of Congress Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution Donald F. Kettl William A. Galston Dean, School of Public Policy, Senior Fellow and Ezra K. Zilkha Chair, University of Maryland Brookings Institution The Honorable Charles E.M. Kolb The Honorable Bill Gradison President, Committee for Economic Former Ranking Member, House Development Budget Committee The Honorable Jim Kolbe The Honorable William H. Gray III Former Member of Congress Former Chairman, House Budget Committee; Former Majority Whip Lawrence B. Lindsey President and CEO, The Lindsey Group; The Honorable Judd Gregg Former Director, National Economic Former Chairman, Senate Budget Council Committee Maya MacGuineas Ron Haskins President, Committee for a Responsible Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution Federal Budget

Kevin Hassett The Honorable N. Gregory Mankiw Senior Fellow and Director of Economic Former Chairman, Council of Economic Policy Studies, American Enterprise Advisers Institute The Honorable Donald Marron G. William Hoagland Director, Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Former Staff Director, Senate Budget Center; Former Acting Director, Committee Congressional Budget Office

The Honorable Glenn Hubbard William Marshall Former Chairman, Council of Economic President, Progressive Policy Institute Advisers; Dean, Columbia Business School The Honorable James T. McIntyre, Jr. Former Director, Office of Management and Budget

Olivia S. Mitchell The Honorable Charles Robb Former Member of Congress

The Honorable William A. Niskanen Diane Lim Rogers Chairman Emeritus and Distinguished Chief Economist, Concord Coalition Senior Economist, Cato Institute; Former Acting Chairman, Council of Economic The Honorable Christina Romer Advisers Former Chairwoman, Council of Economic Advisers The Honorable Jim Nussle Former Director, Office of Management The Honorable Robert E. Rubin and Budget; Former Chairman, House Former Secretary of the U.S. Budget Committee; Co-Chair, Department of the Treasury Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget The Honorable Martin Sabo Former Chairman, House Budget Michael E. O’Hanlon Committee Senior Fellow and Sydney Stein Jr. Chair, Brookings Institution Isabel V. Sawhill Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution The Honorable Paul O’Neill Former Secretary of the U.S. Allen Schick Department of the Treasury Distinguished University Professor, University of Maryland Marne Obernauer, Jr. Chairman, Beverage Distributors Sylvester J. Schieber Company Former Chairman, Social Security Advisory Board Rudolph G. Penner Former Director, Congressional Budget Daniel N. Shaviro Office Wayne Perry Professor of Taxation, University School of Law The Honorable Timothy Penny Former Member of Congress; Co-Chair, The Honorable George P. Shultz Committee for a Responsible Federal Former Secretary of the U.S. Budget Department of the Treasury; Former Secretary of the U.S. Department of The Honorable Alice Rivlin State; Former Secretary of the U.S. Former Director, Congressional Budget Department of Labor Office; Former Director, Office of Management and Budget; Former Member, National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform The Honorable Alan K. Simpson The Honorable Laura D. Tyson Former Member of Congress; Co-Chair, Former Chairwoman, Council of National Commission on Fiscal Economic Advisers; Former Director, Responsibility and Reform National Economic Council

Kent Smetters The Honorable George Voinovich Boettner Chair Associate Professor, Former Member of Congress Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania The Honorable Paul Volcker Former Chairman, C. Eugene Steuerle System Institute Fellow and Richard B. Fisher Chair, Urban Institute Carol Cox Wait Former President, Committee for a The Honorable Charlie Stenholm Responsible Federal Budget Former Member of Congress; Co-Chair, Committee for a Responsible Federal The Honorable David M. Walker Budget Former Comptroller General of the United States The Honorable Phillip Swagel Former Assistant Secretary for The Honorable Murray L. Economic Policy, U.S. Department of the Weidenbaum Treasury Former Chairman, Council of Economic Advisers The Honorable John Tanner Former Member of Congress The Honorable Joseph R. Wright, Jr. Former Director, Office of Management John B. Taylor and Budget Mary and Robert Raymond Professor of , Stanford University; George Mark Zandi P. Shultz Senior Fellow in Economics, Chief Economist, Moody’s Analytics Hoover Institution

*Affiliations do not represent institutional endorsement.