OMB Watch Releases In-Depth Analysis of House Republicans' "Pledge to America"

PRESS RELEASE
-For Immediate Release-
October 6, 2010

Contact: Brian Gumm, (202) 683-4812, bgumm@ombwatch.org

OMB Watch Releases In-Depth Analysis
of House Republicans' "Pledge to America"

WASHINGTON, Oct. 6, 2010—OMB Watch today released an in-depth analysis of "A Pledge to America," the House Republicans' newest policy plan. The Pledge was announced on Sept. 23.

Overall, the analysis finds that the Pledge paints with a broad policy brush. Despite the lack of detail, OMB Watch was able to examine the Pledge in three main areas: regulatory policy; tax and budget policy; and transparency and government accountability.

Gary D. Bass, Executive Director of OMB Watch, said, "Our methodical analysis confirmed many of the initial impressions of the Pledge: that it's short on details but could have serious implications for the nation."

Bass continued, "The Pledge's policy proposals, if enacted, would increase budget deficits, harm Americans still trying to recover from the recession, and bring work on crucial public protections to a grinding halt."

On transparency issues, Bass noted that the Pledge falls flat. "For all the lofty openness and accountability rhetoric in the Pledge, the document offers only one transparency proposal – a 'Read the Bill' policy," he said. The Pledge also contains a smattering of other proposals that may be related to government accountability, but they are vague, and their mechanisms of implementation are unclear.

"If the Pledge's authors want to be taken seriously on transparency issues, they're going to have to offer the American people more than one idea, and they're going to have to present a concrete plan for bringing meaningful transparency to the federal government," Bass concluded.

The analysis is available online at http://www.ombwatch.org/pledgetoamericaanalysis.

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OMB Watch is a nonprofit research and advocacy organization dedicated to promoting government accountability, citizen participation in public policy decisions, and the use of fiscal and regulatory policy to serve the public interest. Find OMB Watch on Facebook and Twitter.

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