Obama debt commission: It's almost a wrap

[JonLP24]

Source: CNN Money

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- After working for eight months, the 18 members of President Obama's bipartisan deficit commission will finish their deliberations this week over how to reduce the nation's long-term debt.

Expectations are low that the panel, which holds its final public meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday, will get the 14 votes required to make official recommendations to Congress.

But even if the panel doesn't produce a unified report, the group's efforts may not have been in vain.

That's because the commission's co-chairmen, Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, have already gotten the national conversation started. Nearly three weeks ago, they unexpectedly released proposals that offer a framework for the debate over how to reduce the debt.




Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2010/11/28/news/economy/debt_commission_meetings/index.htm?eref=mrss_igoogle_business

[Newsjock]

1. I believe that headline isn't quite correct

s/wrap/farce

[pscot]

2. Fish wrap

Let's have a defense cutting commission.

[boppers]

13. Increased defense cuts were part of the recommendations...

... at least, in the preliminary version that came out.

[displacedvermoter]

24. Can you explain what Obama has got covered for us?

[boppers]

32. What?

Oh, the signature pic?

It's a form of pushing back against chicken-little panics that seem to erupt often in American culture.

[No Elephants]

22. How about a commission-cutting commission? They're a farce.

[Odin2005]

3. More like uber-clusterfuck!

[blackspade]

4. Oh goodie.

Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson gotthe 'national conversation' started.
More like put a stick in the nations eye.

[lib2DaBone]

5. Why is it.... the Bankers and the Politicians crash the economy...

.. and it's the Senior Citizens, working people and children who must have "Austerity"?

[Lasher]

11. Because it's class warfare.

Republicans have been repeatedly accusing others of waging class warfare, while they and their rich benefactors waged it against us.

[Jackpine Radical]

26. This isn't class warfare.

It's only class warfare if the poor fight back.

This is class rape.

[Lasher]

27. I am fundamentally disappointed to see that the Democratic Party is not standing up for the poor.

Oh, they go through the motions sometimes but their heart is not in it. I have been voting for Democrats exclusively for 4 decades but I just can't be a yellow dog anymore.

[Jackpine Radical]

29. It's getting harder.

[yourout]

6. And every one of them will hit the middle and lower classes the hardest.

[MannyGoldstein]

7. Obama got the conversation started - he deserves the credit

Once he appointed Simpson and Bowles, there could be no other outcome than a recommendation of tax cuts for the rich and shared sacrifice for the rest of us.

So it is Obama who has made these suggestions.

[Iowa]

8. +1

[emilyg]

15. +2

[Jim Sagle]

18. Change you guard closely, knowing it's all you've got left to llve on.

[Hoyt]

20. Disagree. It's Obama -- unlike any Prez before -- who is openly discussing a problem.

These are issues we've needed to deal with for decades. No other Prez has.

The "Commission's" report is a starting point in a discussion we need to have. I also think the Commission's draft/proposal indicates how easily some of our financial problems can be solved with a reasonable tax increase for those at the upper end, increase in cap on SS tax, significant military budget cuts (not to personnel or health care), etc. And, let's not forget those scoundrels actually called for a Public Option in their report.

I think Obama deserves a lot of credit. Now, Dems can come back with a different proposal -- if they have the guts.

[MannyGoldstein]

21. The problem is that the wealthiest Americans pay at 1/3 the effective

tax rate that they used to pay at, while the middle class pays at double the rate it used to pay at.

There are zero problems with Social Security. All estimates being used assume a substantially lower GDP growth rat for the next 75 years than we've historically had. If we continue to have anywhere near the same GDP growth that we've had, there are zero Social Security shortfalls.

Obama knows all of this, yet he chose to create a commission to cut taxes further for the wealthy, and attack Social Security.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

9. These two New Deal detractors have already said they are after SS and Medicare, NOT

to reduce the debt (because neither program adds to the debt) but - just because they want to gut / destroy these programs.

[boppers]

16. SS Trust Fund adds to the debt. By law.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_Trust_Fund

This was intentionally done to prevent the amount owed from being quietly "vanished" somehow.

[U4ikLefty]

31. Please quote the text that proves your "point" & not post a Wiki link

It is intellectually lazy & typical.

[lib2DaBone]

10. What about $436 Million-a-day for the Military?

$436 million every friggin day 24/7/365. No room to cut there, huh?

[boppers]

17. They recommended even greater cuts (by twofold) than the current cuts planned.

So, yes, there was room to cut, and they recommended those cuts in their draft.

We'll have to wait to see what the final version looks like.

[EVDebs]

12. Spell wrap with a 'C'

It's a Cat Food Commission.

[cutlassmama]

14. +1

[Ghost Dog]

19. ...Eight months... And, how much in 'lunch' expenses in the meantime?

That's alright, guys. There's absolutely no sense of urgency around here.

[No Elephants]

23. IOW, our long national nightmare is almost over? Thank God. Kabuki is so tedious.

[old mark]

25. More of that 3 dimensional chess we have been hearing about....nt

[Zenlitened]

28. "Bowles and Simpson...have already gotten the national conversation started"

Indeed they have. They have established the frame and, not surprisingly, it reeks of right-wing thinking.

Mission accomplished.

But even if the panel doesn't produce a unified report, the group's efforts may not have been in vain.

That's because the commission's co-chairmen, Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, have already gotten the national conversation started.

:puke:

[inna]

30. can't wait.

:sarcasm:


but seriously, unilateral class warfare is getting old.