Deficit report rejected
But panel encouraged by bipartisan support
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama’s deficit reduction commission fell a few votes shy of the number needed to send its proposal to Capitol Hill for action, but still received enough bipartisan support to raise hopes that political leaders are girding to tackle the nation’s gargantuan debt.
The commission’s final report, with the cinematic title “The Moment of Truth,” won the backing of 11 out of 18 members – three short of the supermajority required under the executive order that Obama signed in February when he created the panel.
Far from disappointed, commission members and staff were delighted that in the most polarized political climate in memory, a serious effort to grapple with rising deficits won the backing of House members and senators, of conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats, of business leaders and budget experts.
“We took a big banana, and threw it into the gorilla cage, and the gorilla has picked it up,” said former Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyo., who co-chaired the panel with Democrat Erskine Bowles, who was chief of staff to former President Bill Clinton. “They’ll peel it, mash it, play with it, but they will eat some.”
Blue-ribbon commissions in Washington routinely churn out reports that are ultimately ignored. But there are occasions where the urgency of the moment piques the public’s imagination, triggering a national conversation.
Obama will submit his 2012 budget in February and could include parts of the blueprint laid out in the commission report. In a signal that the White House is taking the commission’s work seriously, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and budget director Jacob Lew have asked for a meeting with Simpson and Bowles.
Obama’s involvement is crucial, commission members said. One member, Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said the next step should be a national summit meeting with Obama and legislative leaders.
Another member, Alice Rivlin, said the president can signal his commitment to deficit reduction by mentioning the issue in his State of the Union speech next month and incorporating parts of the report into his budget.
“He let the commission do its thing … but he’s got to be a leader,” Rivlin, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office, said in an interview. “He’s got to get out front and take it seriously now. I’d like to see him put it front and center in the State of the Union and in his budget.”
Andrew Stern, a commission member and former labor union leader, said what happens with the recommendations is “really about leadership.”
“This plan deserves a vote, and this president needs to make sure that, by the State of the Union, he also has his own plan and his own leadership, because this is the issue of our time that must be solved.”
In some ways, endorsing the final report was easy; the document is non-binding. Lawmakers who are routinely at odds on the Senate floor found themselves in rare accord when the stakes were mostly symbolic.
Richard Durbin, D-Ill., the Senate’s second-ranking Democrat, and Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., a fiscal conservative, both endorsed the package.
But the House is where a consensus may break down. Representing a potential fault line, five of six senators on the fiscal commission backed the final recommendations. However, five of six members of the House voted no, including all three Republicans.