House could vote this week on budget plan modeled on Simpson-Bowles ideas
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
House could vote this week on budget plan modeled on
Simpson-Bowles ideas
By: Rosalind S. Helderman, March 28, 2012
The House could vote for the first time this week on a
bipartisan deficit-cutting plan, modeled on the suggestions of a
presidential commission chaired by former senator Alan Simpson
(R-Wyo.) and former White House official Erskine Bowles, that calls
for both spending cuts and new tax revenue.
The Simpson-Bowles report was widely lauded as the potential key
to a breakthrough on shrinking the nation's debt. But it was never
endorsed by a supermajority of the commission's members, never
embraced by President Obama and did not face a vote in either
chamber of Congress.
But now a bipartisan group of House members has submitted a
budget plan built on the Simpson-Bowles ideas, a spending plan that
would slash $4 trillion from deficits over the next 10 years.
Presented as an alternative to a GOP budget blueprint authored
by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) that would curb red ink through spending
cuts alone, it is expected to lose to Ryan's plan.
But any significant support for a proposal calling for $1.2
trillion in new revenues, particularly from tax-increase-adverse
Republicans, could signal new hope for efforts in the coming year
to get the kind of grand deficit-reduction bargain that eluded
Obama and House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) in talks over
raising the debt ceiling during the summer.
A bipartisan group of senators has been continuing to quietly
work on deficit reduction proposals, hopeful that they could gain
new traction after the November election. Meanwhile, the impending
expiration of Bush-era tax cuts and massive automatic spending cuts
set to take effect Jan. 1 could provide powerful motivations to
negotiate.
The House members said they hope their efforts could demonstrate
that there is a moderate middle willing to push ahead with such a
proposal.
"We're going to wind up here anyway, so we think we might as
well start talking," said Rep. Steven C. LaTourette (R-Ohio), who
along with Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) is serving as the budget
proposal's lead sponsor.
Bowles said Tuesday that he and Simpson have endorsed the House
effort and believe it represents the principles included in their
own proposal. "We want to do anything that we can to help them move
this process forward," Bowles told reporters.
The bipartisan plan, whose sponsors include three other
Republicans and four additional Democrats, sketches broad outlines
for reducing deficits to 1.4 percent of the nation's gross
domestic product during the next 10 years.
It calls for reducing spending by about $2 trillion beyond
the nearly $1 trillion in cuts agreed to by both parties in
the summer deal that raised the nation's debt ceiling. And it
proposes major changes to entitlement programs, including applying
a new formula for calculating inflation in Social Security payments
that many liberals decry for reducing benefits to retirees.
The budget also proposes a rewrite of the tax code that would
eliminate tax loopholes and subsidies.
"It's a challenge for both parties," Cooper said. "But we know
the pain is shared equally and fairly. We know it's a balanced
solution. We know it's a bipartisan solution. And that's a good
place to start."
A strong vote on the House floor Thursday could build momentum
for future bipartisan deficit discussions. But there is risk in
pushing for the vote now too, particularly if House members view
the measure as a competitor to the partisan proposals advanced by
Ryan and Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), the leading Democrat on the
House Budget Committee.
"You're trying to put a bipartisan balanced solution to the
problem in the middle of the most partisan debate that will occur
in Congress," said Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), who has endorsed
including new tax money in a debt deal.
But LaTourette said he believes he and Cooper can round up
enough votes for the idea to avoid deflating the bipartisan
effort.