Writing a letter to the editor of your local newspaper alerts the general public to what's happening in Washington, D.C., and throughout your state. Although publication policies vary, the following advice applies to most newspapers: Keep your letter brief. Many newspapers will not consider letters longer than 200-300 words (1 to 1-1/2yped pages, double spaced). Type your letter if you can; many editors won't read letters that are not typed.

(Houston, Texas) On June 17th and June 18th, 9,000 Texan delegates convened to determine their Year 2000 Platform. Texas CSE was there to inject our key economic issues into the platform – and we did!

Issue Analysis 105

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, thank you for inviting me here today to discuss the importance of government reform and the need to provide American taxpayers an honest accounting of government activity. My name is Scott A. Hodge, and I am the director of tax and budget policy at Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation (CSE Foundation), a 250,000-member nonpartisan, non-profit consumer advocacy group that recruits, educates, trains, and mobilizes hundreds of thousands of volunteer activists to fight for less government, lower taxes, and more freedom.1

On Tuesday, March 14, 2000, Alabama CSE held its second annual Day at the Capital. The day focused on this year's judicial elections and the issue of school choice, with over 160 attendees plus other interested guests - more than double last year's attendance! Participants traveled from over 20 Alabama cities, with many coming in by buses or vans. Highlights from CSE Day included:

Republican House and Senate leaders are under tremendous pressure from Bill Clinton and many of their colleagues to bust the discretionary spending caps established by the 1997 balanced budget agreement. But the leadership has a weapon that, if they are willing to use it, could undermine many of Clinton’s pet initiatives while tempering the spending frenzy of their colleagues. All the leadership needs to do is enforce the congressional rules that prohibit spending money on unauthorized programs.

A new report by the House Budget Committee Majority details longstanding waste throughout the federal government. The report, "Reviving the Reform Agenda," aims to renew congressional focus on accountability in the spending of taxpayer dollars. According to the report “Federal programs continue to waste billions of dollars annually through longstanding, systemic problems that persist – and in some cases are growing worse – despite repeated warnings from the Government’s principal watchdogs, the General Accounting Office [GAO] and the inspectors general [IG] of government agencies.”

Part I Squandering the Surplus, Threatening Medicare Clinton’s tax cut plan returns less than 23 percent of the $746 billion surplus back to taxpayers, leaving roughly $580 billion for the administration’s other priorities. Their plan dedicates these remaining funds for spending on new entitlement programs and for buying down publicly held debt under the guise of extending Medicare’s solvency.