First it cuts from current real spending rather than using the base line budgeting that assume an increases of 7% a year like the other plans being offered. So compared to the other plans on the table it saves 8% the first year alone and compounds theose savings each year.
Second the 1% is only part of the plan. It also caps overall spending at 18% of GDP starting in FY 2018. If I’m not mistaken Cut Cap and Balance caped spending at 20% of GDP.
Third it imposes a trigger if the cuts are not made.
But, Mack and everyone supporting the bill acknowledges that it also requires the balanced budget amendment be passed for the plan to work. No serious person will claim that spending can be controlled long term without the balanced budget amendment.
The Mack Penny Plan is not in place of the amendment. It is proposed as a companion to the BBA. It is offered as an alternative to the Boehner plan.
I didn’t write the bill and have not read the whole thing yet,(I’m trying to dig through it) but Rand Paul says it works and is the best plan on the table right now. So like him or not, Rand Paul is probably the most hard line deficit hawk in congress, and his endorsement, to me, means it is a serious plan.
I submit to you that it is way ahead of any plan that uses the base line numbers which assume an across the board 7% a year increase every year. Those plans count spending increases as cuts. This one doesn’t. That alone makes the Mack plan a good place to start in my opinion.
Matt Kibbe of Freedom Works stated: “ Washington is on an unprecedented spending binge. Our national debt has skyrocketed to nearly $14.4 trillion. The Republican Study Committee has listed the One Percent Spending Reduction Act as a bold solution in their “Cut, Cap and Balance” proposal letter to House leadership. The letter states that it would be fiscally irresponsible to raise the debt ceiling without immediate spending cuts, enforceable total-spending caps and a balanced budget amendment. Rep. Mack’s “penny plan” should be considered as the second part of the RSC’s “Cut, Cap, and Balance” approach for the debt ceiling in order to put federal spending on the path to a balanced budget.”