Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform
Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform
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两党权利和税收改革委员会
DOI：
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发表时间：
1995
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
R. L. DiSimone
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
R. L. DiSimone
1993年11月5日，克林顿总统发布了第12878号行政命令，成立了两党权利改革委员会，负责建议长期的预算节约措施，包括（1）修改法定权利和其他强制性计划，以及（2）替代税收改革提案。该委员会后来被称为权利和税收改革两党委员会。该委员会的成立是为了回应对预算赤字规模和委员会定义的福利计划在创造预算赤字中所扮演的角色的广泛和日益增长的关注。一般来说，如果法院发现公法在法律上要求政府向符合该计划资格标准的人支付款项，则福利委员会将政府计划定义为福利。国会在《国会预算法》中纳入了一系列定义（例如，直接支出），这些定义在很大程度上与“应享权利”的一般概念相对应。“根据《国会预算法》的定义，税收支出是由于向符合条件的个人提供税收优惠的特殊税收规定或法规而导致的个人和公司所得税负债的减少。一些委员会成员认为，因此，税收支出相当于应享权利的收入，而另一些成员则认为不是。有些人还认为，社会保障福利不是应享权利，因为它们是以收入为基础的，因此是一种挣来的权利。委员会认为社会保障方案在很大程度上属于其任务范围，并得到了相当大的关注。本说明审查委员会的工作，特别侧重于社会保障在委员会审议工作中发挥的作用。小组由主席任命的30名成员组成（主席还指定了一名主席和一名副主席）。从参议院任命了10名成员（每个政党5名），从众议院任命了10名成员（每个政党5名），从公共和私营部门任命了10名成员，他们在委员会审议的领域具有经验和专门知识。1993年12月23日，第12887号行政命令将委员会成员增加到32人，参议院名单上又增加了2人。委员会成员所代表的名称和组织的名单载于附录A。1994年期间，权利委员会在华盛顿举行了9次会议，其中4次是证人作证的听证会。在1994年8月8日的一次会议上，权利委员会通过了给总统的临时报告（1），并将其发送给总统和国会领导人，同时向公众发布。该报告以30票对1票（1名成员没有投票）通过，对问题的性质提出了一些“发现”，即社会保障和医疗保险的支出和收入必须平衡，以保持这些计划的偿付能力。临时调查结果概述了如果立法者不采取任何措施来解决福利计划的不平衡问题，可能出现的经济和预算问题，这标志着委员会首次尝试提出具体的改革建议。定于12月初举行投票。调查结果位于下面[注：调查结果5和7，直接影响社会保障，全文转载;只有其他调查结果的摘要出现]：调查结果：为了确保今天的债务和支出承诺不会不公平地负担美国儿童，政府必须立即采取行动。一个由总统领导的国会两党联盟必须解决政府的权利承诺与其可用于支付这些承诺的资金之间的长期不平衡。发现二：为了确保长期经济增长和繁荣所必需的私人投资水平，必须大幅提高国民储蓄。…
On November 5, 1993, President Clinton issued Executive Order 12878 establishing the Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement Reform, charged with recommending long-term budget saving measures involving (1) revisions to statutory entitlement and other mandatory programs, and (2) alternative tax reform proposals. The Commission later came to be known as the Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform. The Commission was created in response to widespread and growing concern about the size of the budget deficit and the role that entitlement programs, as defined by the Commission, play in creating it. In general, the Entitlement Commission defined a government program as an entitlement if a court found that a public law legally obligates the government to make payments to persons meeting the program's eligibility criteria. Congress has included a series of definitions in the Congressional Budget Act (for example, direct spending) that largely correspond to the general concept of "entitlements." Tax expenditures, as defined under the Congressional Budget Act, are reductions in individual and corporate income tax liabilities that result from special tax provisions or regulations that provide tax benefits to qualifying individuals. Some Commission members have suggested that tax expenditures are therefore the revenue equivalent of entitlements, and others believe they are not. Some also believe that Social Security benefits are not entitlements because they are based on earnings and thus they are an earned right. The Social Security programs were considered by the Commission to be very much within its mandate and received a considerable amount of its attention. This note reviews the work of the Commission, with a particular focus on the part played by Social Security in its deliberations. The panel was composed of 30 members appointed by the President (who also designated a Chair- and Vice-Chairperson). Ten Members were appointed from the Senate (5 from each political party), 10 Members from the House of Representatives (5 from each political party), and 10 members from the public and private sectors with experience and expertise in the areas to be considered by the Commission. On December 23, 1993, Executive Order 12887 increased the Commission membership to 32, with 2 additional persons added to the Senate list. A list of the names and organizations represented by the Commission members appears in Appendix A. During 1994, nine meetings of the Entitlement Commission were held in Washington, DC, of which four were hearings at which witnesses testified. Interim Report At a meeting on August 8, 1994, the Entitlement Commission adopted the Interim Report to the President(1) and sent it to the President and the Congressional Leadership, as well as releasing it to the public. The report, adopted by a vote of 30 to 1 (with 1 member not voting), made a number of "findings" about the nature of the problem, that Social Security and Medicare spending and revenues must be brought into balance to keep these programs solvent. The interim findings--which outlined the economic and budget problems likely if lawmakers did nothing to fix imbalances in entitlement programs--marked the Commission's first attempt aimed at producing specific reform recommendations. A vote in early December was scheduled. The findings are located below [note: finding numbers 5 and 7, which bear directly on Social Security, are reproduced below in full; summaries only of the other findings appear]: Finding number: To ensure that today's debt and spending commitments do not unfairly burden America's children, the government must act now. A bipartisan coalition of Congress, led by the President, must resolve the long-term imbalance between the government's entitlement promises and the funds it will have available to pay for them. Finding number 2: To ensure the level of private investment necessary for long-term economic growth and prosperity, national savings must be raised substantially. …