On Friday September 14 Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles sat down for an interview on economic policy with Meet The Press host David Gregory. Simpson and Bowles were the co-chairs of President Obama's fiscal responsibility commission, as well as being the co-authors of the well-known Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction plan.
During the interview, the two men, one a former GOP Senator and the other a former White House Chief of Staff during the Clinton administration, discussed what they believe to be the least economically harmful path towards avoiding a U.S. debt-crisis.
The two men explained their plan, which calls for $3 trillion in budget cuts over ten years, as well as a non-revenue neutral plan to remove complexities and deductions in the tax code. When Gregory asked why the plan was not considered more seriously by the President and congress, they explained the political obstacles.
The entitlement reforms proposed by the plan worry Democrats. The cuts to social programs, not only carry ideological weight, but cutting such programs could easily make future campaigns more difficult. The absence of revenue neutrality, the reductions in military spending, and $3 trillion in budget cuts worry republicans, who have seemingly come to a consensus that $3 trillion is not enough, that the U.S. can't afford to spare any expense when it comes to defense, and that deficit reduction should be revenue neutral.
When asked about the growing demand among republicans for much deeper cuts and no revenue, former Sen. Simpson had some tough words for his former party. "If they don't begin to deal honestly without the hysteria, emotions, fear, guilt, and rage... they will be a party that won't make it through."
He then went on to summarize by saying "you can't get there by taxing, and you can't get there by cutting. You need a balanced approach. The word compromise does not mean you're a wimp."
The views expressed by the former Senator likely resonate with a lot of people, given that despite high unemployment, low job approval, and an anemic recovery, President Obama and Gov. Romney are within most polls' margins of error. This indicates that while people desire an alternative to Obama, the path presented by Romney and his peers in the GOP are similarly unattractive.
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Comments: 18
Denial is not a river.
I'm curious, Jeff. Can you read?
I'm curious, Chris Wiegard . Can you read?
Read this...
Former Sen. Alan Simpson, the Wyoming Republican who has been at the center of a two-year effort to reduce the deficit, lauded Mitt Romney’s selection of Paul Ryan as his running mate and said it would force the country to have a frank and necessary conversation about growing federal debt.
Mr. Simpson, who co-chaired the White House’s 2010 deficit-reduction commission with Democrat Erskine Bowles, said in an interview that news of Mr. Ryan’s addition to the Republican ticket “pleased me to death.”
“He’s a very rare breed of political type in Washington D.C.,” Mr. Simpson said of Mr. Ryan. “He’s got guts. Real guts. Because of that, they’ll savage him. But he’s tough. He can take it.”
Mr. Simpson predicted liberal groups and some Democrats would try and pummel Mr. Ryan for his proposals to rework Medicare. He said, for example, that liberal groups would claim that “granny will be thrown off the top of the Empire State Building, and then they’ll start breaking bed pans.”
He said these attacks won’t slow Mr. Ryan down.
“He’s going to tell Americans what they need to hear and not what they want to hear,” Mr. Simpson said. “He knows his numbers. He knows his facts. He’s serious and he’s smart.”
So Chris since you are hanging on Simpson every word and have conceded him as an all knowing genius, far superior to your limited intellect, I guess you are pleased with Ryan as well?
There is a budget? When did that happen? The DemonCraps in the Senate finally passed a budget and it did not make the news!?!?
What an election it would make if the Democrats were running neck and neck with the Green Party.
That's what we need.... not.