Debt And Deficit Commission Co-Chairs' Proposal Released
President Obama created the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform on February 18, 2010 with the stroke of a pen. It was necessary for him to use an executive order to form the commission because the Senate was unable to gather the 60 votes needed for cloture on a bill which would have made the commission's findings binding on the legislative body.
Today, the co-chairs of the commission released their proposal on how to address the debt and deficit. According to Talking Points Memo, the proposal still needs to be voted on and receive support from at least 14 of the 18 members before it becomes their official recommendations.
Regardless of what cuts or tax hikes are in the plan, it will certainly have items in it that will upset practically everyone. Frankly, the big question is whether or not Congress will act on any of it, all of it, or just some of it. The report provides a basic 5 part plan to get America back into fiscal health, but it gives a wide variety of very broad options to achieve their goal.
The first part of he plan is to enact tough discresionary spending caps and provide $200 billion in domestic and military cuts by 2015, which is illustrated by the second document at the end of this article . The second part of the plan is to revamp the tax code, making it simpler and reducing rates to broaden the tax base. Third, the report calls for the government to address the "Doc Fix" (An issue in which doctors are paid much less by Medicare than insurance companies) without continuing to borrow money by payment reforms, cost sharing, malpractice reform, and unnamed long term measures to contain further health spending growth. The fourth calls for mandatory savings from farm subsidies, military and civil service retirement. And the fifth part of the plan calls for ensuring social security solvency for the next 75 years while reducing poverty among seniors.
The generalities all seem reasonable, but it's the specifics which tend to get people worked up and politicians try their hardest not to publicly support anything specific. In any event, take a look at the plan below and an example of $200 billion in cuts to discretionary spending below that to get an idea of what congress may or may not do.
Read the plan here and read the $200 billion in Illustrative Savings here.
Today, the co-chairs of the commission released their proposal on how to address the debt and deficit. According to Talking Points Memo, the proposal still needs to be voted on and receive support from at least 14 of the 18 members before it becomes their official recommendations.
Regardless of what cuts or tax hikes are in the plan, it will certainly have items in it that will upset practically everyone. Frankly, the big question is whether or not Congress will act on any of it, all of it, or just some of it. The report provides a basic 5 part plan to get America back into fiscal health, but it gives a wide variety of very broad options to achieve their goal.
The first part of he plan is to enact tough discresionary spending caps and provide $200 billion in domestic and military cuts by 2015, which is illustrated by the second document at the end of this article . The second part of the plan is to revamp the tax code, making it simpler and reducing rates to broaden the tax base. Third, the report calls for the government to address the "Doc Fix" (An issue in which doctors are paid much less by Medicare than insurance companies) without continuing to borrow money by payment reforms, cost sharing, malpractice reform, and unnamed long term measures to contain further health spending growth. The fourth calls for mandatory savings from farm subsidies, military and civil service retirement. And the fifth part of the plan calls for ensuring social security solvency for the next 75 years while reducing poverty among seniors.
The generalities all seem reasonable, but it's the specifics which tend to get people worked up and politicians try their hardest not to publicly support anything specific. In any event, take a look at the plan below and an example of $200 billion in cuts to discretionary spending below that to get an idea of what congress may or may not do.
Read the plan here and read the $200 billion in Illustrative Savings here.
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