CEO group urges tax hikes, spending cuts

CEOs from more than 80 major U.S. companies are pressing Congress to reduce the federal deficit by raising taxes and cutting spending. The deficit and how to tame it has become a key theme in the presidential campaign.

They warned in a statement issued Thursday that the uncertainty spawned by the deficit, which has topped $1 trillion for four consecutive years, is dampening businesses' hiring and investment and stifling the fragile economic recovery.

The CEOs said the solution requires a combination of higher taxes and reduced government spending including on entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. They also seek federal investment in infrastructure and math and science education.

"What it really comes down to is if we still have the political will to be a great country," Dave Cote, chairman and CEO of Honeywell International Inc., said in a statement.

The CEOs head a diverse array of corporations, including Aetna Inc., Microsoft Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Time Warner Cable Inc., Merck & Co. Inc., General Electric Co., Dow Chemical Co., Verizon Communications Inc., Bank of America Corp., AT&T Inc. and Allstate Corp.

The group endorses the proposals of a special bipartisan commission that called for about $3 in spending cuts for every $1 in tax increases to save around $4 trillion.

Currently the federal government borrows about 31 cents for every dollar it spends.

A year-end deadline looms for Congress and the White House to work out a deal on the deficit. Otherwise across-the-board spending cuts and tax increases will automatically kick in, slicing about $100 billion from federal budgets and raising taxes by $400 billion.