The leaders of the defunct White House debt commission Tuesday floated a new deficit-reduction plan and warned that President Obama’s legacy is riding on his ability to rein in runaway government spending.
Erskine Bowles, who was a chief of staff to President Clinton, and Alan K. Simpson, a former Republican senator from Wyoming, urged lawmakers to cancel the “mindless” $85 billion in spending cuts — known as sequesters — that are set to take effect in less than two weeks and embrace a $2.4 trillion deficit-reduction plan that demands that both parties put their “sacred cows” on the table.
“We need a grand bargain, and to get a grand bargain, both sides are going to have to move out of their comfort zones,” Mr. Bowles said at a morning breakfast sponsored by Politico.
The proposal calls for Republicans to accept higher taxes through tax reform and Democrats to accept deeper cuts to health care programs as well as lower cost-of-living increases for a number of federal programs, including Social Security.
“We have to convince Democrats that they have to do more on health care than they have been willing to do to date, and we have to convince Republicans that they have to be willing to do more on revenues than they have already done,” Mr. Bowles said.
Mr. Simpson said it is gut-check time for the Obama presidency.
“If he can’t cut the mustard with solvency of Social Security under honest appraisals of the trustees and he can’t get a handle on an automatic pilot rig of health care, he will have a failed presidency,” Mr. Simpson said.
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