Five Super Ideas for the Super Committee

Under the Budget Control Act, a Joint Deficit Reduction Committee is tasked with finding up to $1.5 trillion in savings over ten years.  The Committee is free to look at revenues, entitlements, and discretionary spending.This “Super Committee” began its work in earnest this month and is required to have some kind of plan by November 23rd.  The deadline for House and Senate votes on the Super Committee’s recommendation is December 23rd.  That means there’s a lot in play during a short period of time.Back in May, I joined with John Norris at the Center for American Progress to make recommendations on savings that could be achieved through simple reforms of some aid policies and procedures.  We called it then Five Steps to Make Our Aid More Effective and Save More Than $2 Billion.  I have since informally redubbed it:  Five Super Ideas for the Super Committee.Yes, there’s a long way to go to reach $1.5 trillion, but as they say…a billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.

OPTION	SAVINGS ESTIMATE (annual)
End Cargo Preference for Food Aid	$140 to $200 million
Eliminate Monetized Food Aid	$120 to $200 million
Cut U.S. Agricultural Subsidies	$1.5 to $7.5 billion
Allow more Local and Regional Food Aid Procurement	$228 million
Eliminate Cumbersome Earmarks	Priceless!

On the low estimate end, this would achieve $2 billion in savings annually, or $20 billion over ten years.  On the high end, it would be $8 billion in savings in one year, or $80 billion over ten years.In addition to reducing the deficit, bringing greater efficiency to government programs would be another very positive contribution the Super Committee can make.