Fiscal Commission

Republicans On Obama Debt Commission Push For Corporate And Capital Gains Tax Cuts

Brian Beutler | September 27, 2010, 2:38PM

President Obama meets with the leaders of his bipartisan debt commission, Democrat Erskine Bowles, on left, and former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson, on right.

Republicans on President Obama's fiscal commission, which is tasked with coming up with ways to reduce the deficit, have privately argued in official meetings that the panel should recommend further corporate and capital gains tax cuts as part of its mandate. The panel has been charged with raising revenues and cutting spending, to bring the federal budget into greater balance. But if Republican members are successful, their advocacy would result in either an unbalanced report, dedicated wholly to spending and benefit cuts -- or to gridlock and, thus, no recommendations at all.

At a tax reform working group meeting last week, Republicans argued against every possible tax increase. According to one source familiar with the deliberations, Republicans were even opposed to eliminating loopholes, exemptions, credits and other so-called "tax expenditures" unless the associated revenue increase could be used to lower capital gains and corporate income rates.

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Bush Tax Cuts

FLASHBACK: Top GOP Tax Guy Reluctantly Backed Middle Class Tax Cuts...Just Like Boehner

Brian Beutler | September 14, 2010, 1:56PM

Rep Dave Camp (R-MI) and Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH)

Republicans are trying to limit any damage John Boehner may have done by agreeing, reluctantly, if given no other choice, to support allowing tax cuts on the rich to expire. But at least one very prominent House member held the exact same view just two months ago -- and he's the GOP's top policy guy.

In a July 23 Associated Press story, Rep. David Camp (R-MI) acknowledged that he'd have a hard time voting to block a tax cut package that didn't extend cuts for the wealthy.

"I'll probably vote for it myself," said Camp, who serves as ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee.

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Medicare

Republicans Dominate Medicare Discussions On White House Fiscal Commission

Brian Beutler | September 9, 2010, 10:40AM

President Obama meets with the leaders of his bipartisan debt commission, Democrat Erskine Bowles, on left, and former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson, on right.

The White House's fiscal commission has become a target for progressive activists in large part because a number of reports and public statements indicate that the panel will recommend benefit cuts to Social Security. Most of the backlash has come from critics calling on the commission's co-chair, Republican Alan Simpson, to resign over controversial public statements he's made about the popular program.

But the commissioners are also grappling with another sensitive entitlement program: Medicare. For a number of reasons, the commission is farther from consensus on Medicare than it is on Social Security: Medicare is a more unwieldy program; the commissioners differ wildly on how to prevent its soaring costs from bankrupting the government; and members have already had a working group meeting dedicated to Social Security in isolation. But the ideological conservatism of the Republicans on the commission -- and, indeed, of the commission as a whole -- combined with Democratic fatigue over health care reform mean that the center of gravity of discussions is tilted to the right.

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Social Security

Meet The 18 People Who Could Determine The Fate Of Social Security

Brian Beutler | August 30, 2010, 11:55AM

President Obama meets with the leaders of his bipartisan debt commission, Democrat Erskine Bowles, on left, and former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson, on right.

Last week former Republican Senator Alan Simpson, who co-chairs the White House's fiscal commission, drew a storm of criticism for comparing Social Security to a "cow with 310 million tits." But Titgate isn't really about language. It's about both Simpson himself -- who has long viewed Social Security as a bloated program for spoiled old people -- and about the commission as a whole. Comprised of nine tax-averse Republicans and nine Democrats, many of whom have expressed support for Social Security changes in the past, the commission will almost certainly be biased toward benefit cuts, and away from raising taxes, when it presents its report on December 1. Below, the cast of characters who will be making the calls.

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Health Care

Pelosi Reminds Boehner, Camp Who's Boss (VIDEO)

Brian Beutler | February 25, 2010, 7:01PM

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) wasn't the only member left speechless by a hard Democratic retort at today's health care summit. House Minority Leader John Boehner and Rep. David Camp (R-MI) were given a stiff rebuke by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for falsely characterizing the Democrats' health care reform proposals.

To Boehner, Pelosi set the record straight on the question of public funding of abortion. "The law of the land is there is no public funding of abortion, and there is no public funding of abortion in these bills and I don't want our listeners or viewers to get the wrong impression," she said.

And to Camp, she insisted his claims about the bills' proposed cuts to Medicare were false. "You said that the Medicare cuts in this bill cut benefits for seniors," Pelosi said. "They do not. They do not."

Watch:

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