Liberal Groups to Propose Routes to Smaller Deficit

[cal04]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/29/us/politics/29fiscal.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

As President Obama’s fiscal commission faces a deadline this week for agreement on a plan to shrink the mounting national debt, liberal organizations will unveil debt-reduction proposals of their own in the next two days, seeking to sway the debate in favor of fewer reductions in domestic spending, more cuts in the military and higher taxes for the wealthy.

The proposals from two sets of liberal advocacy groups highlight the deep ideological divides surrounding efforts to deal with the nation’s budgetary imbalances, even as Mr. Obama’s bipartisan commission works to finalize its recommendations by Wednesday — and struggles for a formula that would get the backing of at least 14 of its 18 members, the threshold for sending its proposal to Congress for a vote.

(snip)
Both plans are comparable to one recently proposed by Representative Jan Schakowsky, a liberal Democrat from Illinois who is a member of the Bowles-Simpson commission. Ms. Schakowsky opposed the chairmen’s draft as too hard on the middle class.

(snip)
The liberal plans, however, would rely more on limiting payments to doctors, hospitals and other care providers and less on increasing out-of-pocket costs for beneficiaries, except for upper-income people. The liberals also call for a public option to compete with private insurers in new exchanges for consumers, and for the government to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies for lower prescription-drug prices.

More at link

[dionysus]

1. K&R

[Arctic Dave]

2. I want to see the paragraph were they say cut the military budget by 50%.

[Drale]

3. No one is ever going to propose that

because anyone who does is going to be painted as trying to make our country unsafe by you know who over there in the other wing. We need someone who can crack some skulls in congress literally if completely necessary.