TPMDC Chris Van Hollen: October 2011
Chris Van Hollen
Dems Get A Boost For Super Committee Tax Bump
With less than a month before their November 23 deadline, Democrats on the deficit Super Committee are facing serious pushback from their Republican counterparts for proposing a broad deal that would reduce deficits by nearly $3 trillion -- including cuts to popular programs like Medicare -- because it also includes more than $1 trillion in new tax revenues, according to aides briefed on private negotiations.
Sources remain mum on the specifics of the cuts and taxes Dems have put forward. And they caution that most, but not all, of the Democrats on the panel support the push -- an effort to achieve multiple Republican votes for a plan modeled on the "grand bargain" President Obama tried to strike with John Boehner.
But they got some unexpected help from Congressional Budget Office director Doug Elmendorf who testified before the panel Wednesday. He cited analysis his office did about a year ago, which found that allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire would carry greater reward than risk -- that the hole they punch in the budget overwhelms the positive impact they have on productivity.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: Barack Obama, CBO, Chris Van Hollen, Congressional Budget Office, Doug Elmendorf, Finance Committee, John Boehner, Max Baucus, Medicaid, Medicare, Super Committee, Taxes
Super Committee
Hoyer To Super Committee: Go Big, Or We'll Come Back For Round Two
The 12 members of the deficit Super Committee have been so tight lipped about their negotiations, that most of the clues about their progress come from Congressional colleagues -- most of whom are also in the dark about specifics.
At his weekly Capitol briefing Tuesday, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) had a hard time pegging the panel's chances for reaching an agreement to achieve trillions of dollars in deficit reduction. But he insisted that if the panel failed to achieve significant savings, Congress will have to keep chipping away.
"People ask me, 'Are you optimistic?' I say, 'Look, I'm not optimistic -- I'm hopeful,'" Hoyer said. "I hope, because I think it's absolutely essential that we do so, that we succeed. Producing a product that is a big deal, not a small deal -- if we do a small deal, we'll have to revisit that."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: Budget, Chris Van Hollen, Deficit, Steny Hoyer, Super Committee
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