This past week Standard and Poor’s lowered their credit rating for the U.S. for the first time ever amidst debt ceiling debates over the growing federal deficit. Our leaders have nearly all acknowledged that to get the credit rating back to AAA there will need to be cutbacks in the nation’s debt. The best way to reduce the deficit is to cut spending for programs that hinder economic growth. The Center for Freedom and Prosperity has long pointed to the O.E.C.D. as a counterproductive program that the U.S. should stop funding (and participating in).
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (O.E.C.D.) is a global economic organization with the stated mission to stimulate economic progress and development in member countries. Formed in 1961, the O.E.C.D. currently has 34 member countries including nearly all of Europe, all of North America, Japan, and Australia. Currently the O.E.C.D. spends most of its resources on studies and lobbying to get member nations to adopt similar trade, tax, and other economic policies.
So what’s the big problem with all of this? The U.S. continues to spend nearly $100 million a year to support the O.E.C.D. that goes ahead and lobbies for counterproductive economic policies that favor European welfare nations. Over the next ten years the U.S. could save nearly $1 billion by cutting funding for the O.E.C.D. This may not seem like a lot compared to the deficit total, but after witnessing the recent debt ceiling arguments it is clear that every dollar counts. The funding issue seems even more important when considering what percentage of funding the O.E.C.D. gets from the U.S. compared to other member nations. Despite there being 34 member nations and it being housed in France, the O.E.C.D. receives 25% of its support from the U.S., more than any other country.
What’s worse is that not only is the U.S. spending way too much taxpayer money on the O.E.C.D., but also that the organization uses those funds to support policies that would harm the U.S. economy. The Center for Freedom and Prosperity released a video highlighting 6 key reasons to halt US funding of the O.E.C.D., including: its 1) promotion of a value-added tax in the US, 2) pursuit of an anti-tax competition agenda seeking to establish a global tax cartel, 3) endorsement of failed Keynesian spending in the US, 4) support of unpopular Obamacare policies, 5) call for more US spending on everything from welfare to foreign aid, and 6) support of new taxes on energy and financial services.
Our nation is entering a new era where politicians are realizing that financial markets will no longer blindly support over-sized deficits and runaway spending. Government debt will need to shrink and the best way to reduce the deficit is to cut unnecessary spending on counterproductive programs like the O.E.C.D. As Andrew Quinlan, President of CF&P, has said, “This will be the time for Congress to step up and stop wasting taxpayer money on this failed bureaucracy.”
