Deficit commission chiefs meet with White House, call for serious action (LAT)

[somone]

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-deficit-meeting-20101210,0,982002.story

Deficit commission chiefs call for serious action on fiscal report
The co-chairmen of the fiscal commission, Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, meet with administration officials and call for Obama and lawmakers to begin seriously tackling the deficit in the new year.
By Michael A. Memoli

Amid wrangling over an expensive tax measure, the co-chairmen of President Obama's bipartisan fiscal commission called on the White House and lawmakers to begin seriously tackling the nation's deficit challenge in the new year.

Former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson and ex-Clinton Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles, who led the 18-member Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, met Thursday morning with Office of Management and Budget Director Jack Lew and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to discuss the panel's final report, issued last week. The recommendations of the group were not formally adopted – 11 of 18 members endorsed the plan, three shy of the supermajority required. But even members who rejected the specific blueprint said it was time for serious action on the deficit.

In a statement after their White House meeting, Bowles and Simpson urged Obama to begin that process by putting forward his own deficit reduction plan in his State of the Union address and new budget. He should also bring congressional leadership together for serious negotiations on a plan that could be enacted next year. "We believe a bipartisan agreement should be reached before any long-term increase in the debt limit is approved," Bowles and Simpson said. That vote is expected to come next spring.

An administration official briefed on the meeting said there was "absolute agreement on the need to address the nation's unsustainable deficits," and that the president hopes both parties will work together to do so. "The president and his economic team are now studying ideas produced by the commission to identify measures that can complement the administration's broad deficit-reduction strategy and he will look forward to continued consultation with the commission and members from both sides of the aisle," the official said...

[Autumn]

1. And yet they are dead set on tax breaks that really only

add to the deficit and benefit a few. Christ on a crutch I sure didn't think it would be this soon.

This is good,they showed their fucking hand a little too soon.

[notadmblnd]

2. A big step in tackling the deficit in the new year would be to RAISE TAXES ON THE FILTHY RICH!

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. And stop the $190 million per day Afghanistan war.

U.S. war effort in Afghanistan currently costs — about $5.7 billion per month, according to the Congressional Research Service, or roughly
Read more: http://www.city-data.com/forum/politics-other-controversies/1124929-afghanistans-war-costs-190-million-bucks.html#ixzz17fCrTevc

[MoonRiver]

3. So get out of the two unsustainable, unwinnable fucking wars we are in!

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?

[emulatorloo]

5. And give Alan Simpson a big KICK IN THE ASS

[robinlynne]

6. oh I trust Tim Geithner so much........

[dpbrown]

7. Raise more money, dumbasses!

You push through an unaffordable tax break for the ultra-rich, that includes a poison pill provision meant to destabilize Social Security, and now you're interested in reining in deficits???

Are you cracked?

[Autumn]

15. They were interested in reining in deficits before

the President worked out this wonderful tax compromise. The poison pill is the key to the answer you are looking for.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. But the WH supports raising the deficit

wonders never cease.

[inna]

9. shame that Obama legitimized these sick, dangerous f*cks.

[glitch]

11. They sure sacked their own credibility digging these corpses up.

I hope whatever they sold it for is worth it. Actually I don't hope that at all.

[bobbolink]

14. Those thirty pieces of silver?

[bobbolink]

10. Does anyone now doubt this is the beginning of the END for the "safety net"?

It will be finished off completely in two years, I predict.

What becomes of people who depend on assistance?

Does it matter?

[Nite Owl]

12. Some of us don't doubt it but

a lot still hang on and don't connect the dots either because they don't read enough or don't want to face it.

[bobbolink]

13. Or, because they really don't care. We poor folk don't matter much to "progressives".