Super Committee

Lost And Found: Papers Detailing Items On GOP Super Committee Wishlist

Susan Crabtree | September 23, 2011, 12:43PM

Image From Danny E Hooks / Shutterstock

In these times of secretive deficit super committee meetings, back-room pressuring on particular proposals and endless speculation on what the panel will wind up doing, it might be a good idea not to leave internal working deficit-reduction documents lying around the Capitol.

TPM got a hold of what appears to be an internal GOP Super Committee wish list -- a chart of working proposals for finding hundreds of billions of dollars in cost savings. A source recently forwarded the documents after finding them lying on a table outside the Speaker's lobby at the end of August, just when members selected to serve on the joint-deficit panel were being announced.

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Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett to Congress: Seriously Guys, Raise Our Taxes

Michael R. Corjulo | August 15, 2011, 9:24AM

Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett

Berkshire Hathaway CEO (and Forbes second wealthiest American in 2010) Warren Buffett penned an assertive op-ed in Monday's New York Times calling for the congressional "super-committee" assigned to draft a debt reduction plan to raise taxes on the "super rich". The piece did not mention any members of congress or political parties by name but was highly critical of the structure of the U.S. tax code.

Buffett called for a plan that would,"leave rates for 99.7 percent of taxpayers unchanged", and "raise rates immediately on taxable income in excess of $1 million, including, of course, dividends and capital gains. And for those who make $10 million or more -- there were 8,274 in 2009 -- I would suggest an additional increase in rate."

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John Kerry

Kerry Slams 'Tea Party Downgrade'

Igor Bobic | August 7, 2011, 11:27AM

Sen. John Kerry (D-MA)

Senator John Kerry (D-MA), appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday, blamed Republicans and in particular Tea Party intransigence for the unprecedented S&P downgrade of U.S. credit from AAA to AA+.

"I believe this is without question the Tea Party downgrade," he said. "This is the Tea Party downgrade because a minority of people in the House of Representatives countered the will of even many of Republicans in the United States Senate who were prepared to do a bigger deal."

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Debt

Crisis Or Opportunity? Leaders Eye Up Paths Ahead After S&P Downgrade

Thomas Lane | August 6, 2011, 4:55PM

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

It's a staple of business management books that the Chinese character for "crisis" also stands for "opportunity." Despite the fact that this isn't actually true, it has also filtered into the political discourse. The S&P downgrade presents a classic crisis/opportunity situation, namely: will political leaders use this moment to bridge their differences and agree on a credible plan that involves both spending cuts and additional revenues? Or will they simply use it as a chance to say, "I told you so!" and slag off the other side? So far the signs are mixed.

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Debt

Pathway Forward: Pulling The Trigger On a Debt-Ceiling Solution

Susan Crabtree | July 28, 2011, 4:16PM

With Congress careening towards a debt-ceiling deadline of Aug. 2 with no easy solution in sight, behind-the-scenes negotiations are beginning to focus on different trigger options that could break the partisan logjam and end the debt crisis before Washington plunges the country into default.

Even as both sides appeared to harden their positions publicly, Democratic and Republican aides have begun to discuss a variety of trigger options that could bridge the deep divide between the two parties, according to Democratic officials familiar with the negotiations.

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Debt

White House: Boehner, aka The Grinch, Already Spoiling Christmas In July

Susan Crabtree | July 28, 2011, 12:41PM

Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) is secretly channeling the Grinch with his plans to spoil Christmas and wreak havoc on the economy during the pivotal holiday buying season, White House officials warned Thursday.

Democrats' attempts to plaster Republicans with the Grinch label is nothing new, especially when it comes to cutting the deficits and slashing entitlement spending. But this time, the label is particularly apt. Boehner's two-step bill could very well blow-up the legislative process in December as Congress wraps up works and tries to leave town for a two-week holiday break. And, well, Boehner does have a certainty affinity for bright lime green ties...

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Debt

Boehner's Debt Plan Rewrite Faces Test In Thursday Vote

Susan Crabtree | July 27, 2011, 7:02PM

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)

House Republican leaders released a revised debt-reduction bill Wednesday evening after being forced to rewrite the bill so it complies with a promise from Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) to produce more spending cuts than new borrowing authority.

The new Boehner bill will cut the deficit $917 billion over ten years and raises the debt limit $900 billion, a net cost savings of $17 billion, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis. In the next year along, fiscal year 2012, the bill would cut $22 billion in spending.

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John Boehner

Boehner Urges GOPers To 'Stick Together' As He Works On A Compromise

Susan Crabtree | July 24, 2011, 7:10PM

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)

Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) in a conference call Sunday afternoon urged his rank-and-file to accept a debt deal that "has a shot" of passing both chambers of Congress and being signed by President Obama.

"The White House has never gotten serious about tackling the serious issues our nation faces - not without tax hikes - and I don't think they ever will," he told rank-and-file GOP members on the call, according to excerpts of the comments circulated among the conference and obtained by TPM.

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AFL-CIO

AFL-CIO Slams 'Gang of Six' Proposal For 'Goring' The Poor

Susan Crabtree | July 20, 2011, 3:09PM

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka doesn't share President Obama's enthusiasm for the so-called balanced approach to deficit reduction set forth in the much ballyhooed bipartisan 'Gang of Six' proposal. In fact, he's dead-set against it.

Despite all the talk of tough choices and shared sacrifice and taking on sacred cows during difficult economic times, Trumka says the Gang of Six proposal appears to balance the budget on the backs of middle-class workers and the poor.

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Barack Obama

Obama Embraces 'Gang of Six' Deficit Plan

Susan Crabtree | July 19, 2011, 2:16PM

President Obama heaped praise on a deficit-reduction proposal produced by bipartisan group of senators known as the "Gang of Six," calling it a "significant step" and arguing that members on both side of the aisle are beginning to coalesce around a balanced approach involving cuts to entitlements and tax increases.

"We're in the same playing field and my hope is that we start gathering everybody in the next couple of days" on an agreement, Obama told reporters in a brief appearance in the White House briefing room Tuesday.

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Tea Party

Freedomworks Launches Tea Party Budget Commission

Benjy Sarlin | June 27, 2011, 1:49PM

William Temple, Chairman of the Tea Party Founding Fathers

Budget commissions are all the rage right now, and Dick Armey's Freedomworks have put together a Tea Party-flavored panel of their own to try and mark down a specific legislative goals for the movement.

According to the group, the Tea Party Debt Commission is modeled the White House's own commission, led by Erksine Bowles and Alan Simpson, which recommended about $4 trillion in savings through cuts and revenue increases and drew support from Democratic and Republican Senators who are now trying to negotiate a similar deal amongst themselves. Rather than relying on a blue-ribbon gathering of economists, former budget officials, and retired lawmakers, however, the Tea Party version will consist of 18 local activists from 2012 swing states and focus on finding a consensus among the grassroots.

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Budget

'Gang of Six' Under New Scrutiny Ahead of President Obama's Speech

Benjy Sarlin | April 12, 2011, 4:32PM

Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND)

Members of the "Gang of Six," the bipartisan group of senators who have spent the last few months hammering out a comprehensive budget plan based on the Simpson-Bowles commission, are under new scrutiny after reports that President Obama might endorse the deficit panel's findings in his speech tomorrow.

Many commentators on the left have expressed serious concerns such a move would be politically disastrous and undermine Democratic morale heading into battle against a far-reaching House GOP budget proposal that would privatize and drastically cut Medicare. Asked about the issue, Democratic members of the 'Gang of Six' were sensitive to any suggestions that their proposal -- or Obama's -- could be confused with Paul Ryan's "draconian" plan.

"Anything that [Obama] would propose would be dramatically different from the really draconian proposals of Mr. Ryan," Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND), chair of the Senate Budget Committee, told reporters. "Mr. Ryan, the first thing he does is cut taxes by well over a trillion dollars for the wealthiest among us, so he digs the hole deeper which means his cuts have to be far more draconian."

Asked by a reporter whether wading into Medicare cuts could divide Democrats, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) also pushed back against comparison to Ryan.

"I can say with certainty there will be a clear difference between Paul Ryan and Barack Obama on Medicare," he said.

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Budget

White House: Failing to Raise Debt Ceiling Would Be 'Armageddon-Like' For Economy

Susan Crabtree | April 11, 2011, 3:00PM

President Obama speaks at a bipartisan White House gathering with Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) in the background.

Fresh off last week's down-to-the-wire spending showdown, President Obama and Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) are locking horns again on fiscal matters -- and this time the stakes for the U.S. economy are even more monumental.

The White House is demanding a "clean" bill to raise the nation's debt ceiling rather than using it to cut additional spending or for policy additions like last week's attempt to attach legislation defunding Planned Parenthood, but Boehner has already said that idea is dead on arrival. There's no way a debt-ceiling bill would pass the House (i.e. the muster of his unruly GOP conference) without some spending cuts for balance.

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Loretta Sanchez

Loretta Sanchez: Willing To 'Lose My Job' For Saying We Need To Change Social Security (VIDEO)

Eric Kleefeld | February 14, 2011, 5:38PM

Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA)

Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) is one Democrat who is calling for serious consideration of changes to Social Security -- and she says she's willing to lose her job over it.

During a discussion on MSNBC on Monday, the day President Obama's budget proposal was presented, Sanchez credited the recent debt commission as having come forward with proposals on how to deal the problems posed by entitlement programs. However, as host Richard Lui pointed out, Obama hasn't used the deficit commission's proposals in the budget.

"Well it's not for the president to put that in a yearly document," Sanchez replied. "It's for him to say to the Congress, please get to the table and fix Social Security. Please get to the table, we've got a problem with Medicare. And I am one of those people who actually take that commission's report and am poring through it and saying listen, this is the beginning of the real dialogue that we need.

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2012 elections

Spitzer Presses Pawlenty To Detail How He'd Cut Spending As President (VIDEO)

Jon Terbush | January 12, 2011, 1:04PM

Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty (R), who is mulling a 2012 presidential bid, appeared on CNN's Parker-Spitzer last night and said he had the "fortitude" to get things done in Washington. Yet that purported fortitude was not on display when he was pressed to name how he'd address contentious spending issues.

"The country is going to have to look for a leader who's going to have an uncommon amount of fortitude," Pawlenty said. "Not just to flap their jaw out, not just to offer failed amendments, not just to give a speech, but to get it done."

However, when host Eliot Spitzer asked him repeatedly to show that fortitude by outlining how he'd deal with ballooning defense spending, Pawlenty offered few specifics good for only slim savings. Pawlenty embraced a proposal by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to peg DOD spending increases to inflation and to eliminate ineffective weapons programs for an estimated savings of $93 billion over five years, and suggested trimming the size underused military bases.

Spitzer then asked Pawlenty if he'd go further and support calls from several conservatives, including Obama's deficit panel co-chair Alan Simpson, who've said defense should shed $1 trillion over 10 years. Pawlenty said he would not.

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Sarah Palin

Palin Brings Back 'Death Panels' Smear -- Against The Deficit Commission!

Eric Kleefeld | December 10, 2010, 11:22AM

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin (R)

Sarah Palin is now getting on the conservative bandwagon to oppose the Bowles-Simpson deficit plan -- which of course, already failed to receive the approval of a supermajority of the commission itself. And along the way, she's bringing back her greatest hit from the health care debate: The Death Panels!

As Palin writes in a new guest column in the Wall Street Journal:

Not only does it leave ObamaCare intact, but its proposals would lead to a public option being introduced by the backdoor, with the chairmen's report suggesting a second look at a government-run health-care program if costs continue to soar.

It also implicitly endorses the use of "death panel"-like rationing by way of the new Independent Payments Advisory Board--making bureaucrats, not medical professionals, the ultimate arbiters of what types of treatment will (and especially will not) be reimbursed under Medicare.

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Fiscal Commission

'Moment Of Truth'? Fiscal Commission Unveils Final Report

Brian Beutler | December 1, 2010, 9:41AM

The 18-Member Commission on Fiscal Responsibility, Sept. 29th, 2010

Below is a copy of the White House Fiscal Commission's final report, somewhat hilariously titled "Moment of Truth."

According to the panel's chairmen yesterday, today's deficit-reduction recommendations aren't dramatically different from those in their much-ballyhooed draft report: It still contains cuts to Social Security, and eliminates tax expenditures to broaden the tax base and dramatically flatten the system, making the top-bracket tax rates drop dramatically.

The commission was supposed to vote on a final package today, per the executive order President Obama signed when he created the commission. But dissent on the commission delayed the unveiling of these recommendations, so the vote will happen Friday.

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Fiscal Commission

Deficit Commission Stumbles Toward Finish Line

Brian Beutler | November 30, 2010, 6:06PM

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

After a series of events that a fiscal commission source called "strange," the chairmen of the White House panel announced today that they'll delay a vote on the final recommendations until Friday -- two days after December 1, when President Obama required the commission to wrap up their work.

The 18 members of the commission were scheduled to meet in open session yesterday. But with members still deeply at odds, and without a final draft in hand, that meeting was closed to the public at the last minute, leaving staffers and commissioners scratching their heads.

At a press conference today, the co-chairs of the commission -- Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles -- first claimed they'd met the deadline Obama set for them, then shrugged off the fact that they'd missed that deadline, and finally sought to reduce the already low expectations that a significant number of commissioners would vote for the final product.

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Debt Commission

Alan Simpson: 'Greediest Generation' Won't Leave Me Alone Over Debt Commission Report

Evan McMorris-Santoro | November 24, 2010, 5:14PM

Alan Simpson

Pity poor Alan Simpson. Three weeks after he and fellow presidential debt commission co-chair Erskine Bowles tried to put a positive spin on their incredibly controversial prescription to balance the federal budget, Simpson is still taking heat from critics on both sides of the aisle.

"I've never had any nastier mail or [been in a] more difficult position in my life," Simpson told the Casper Star-Tribune in his homestate of Wyoming.

"Just vicious," Simpson said. "People I've known, relatives [saying], "'You son of a bitch. How could you do this?'"

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Alan Simpson

Alan Simpson: Deficit Plan Can Pass After Debt Limit 'Blood Bath'

Brian Beutler | November 19, 2010, 11:52AM

Alan Simpson

The Republican co-chair of the White House's fiscal commission predicted this morning that his controversial recommendations for reducing long-term deficits will have a real opportunity to become enacted next year, when the nation brushes up against its debt ceiling, and newly elected Republicans threaten to send the country into default.

"I can't wait for the blood bath in April," said Alan Simpson at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast roundtable with reporters this morning. "It won't matter whether two of us have signed this or 14 or 18. When debt limit time comes, they're going to look around and say, 'What in the hell do we do now? We've got guys who will not approve the debt limit extension unless we give 'em a piece of meat, real meat, off of this package.' And boy the bloodbath will be extraordinary."

Here's a primer on the coming legislative fight over raising the national debt limit.

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Deficit

CBS Poll: Most Americans Don't Care That Much About The Deficit

Jillian Rayfield | November 15, 2010, 5:57PM

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

For all the recent frenzy over reducing the deficit, a new poll by CBS News shows that only 4% of Americans consider it the biggest problem faced by the country.

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Barack Obama

Deficit Reduction Plan Would Imperil Health Care Reform, Economists Say

Brian Beutler | November 12, 2010, 8:34AM

President Barack Obama

President Obama has been studiously mum about the proposals laid out Wednesday by his fiscal commission's co-chairs, Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson. In fact, he urged critics of the report to hold their fire for now.

"Before anybody starts shooting down proposals, I think we need to listen, we need to gather up all the facts, I think we have to be straight with the American people," he said.

But would he be so blasé if he knew that the draft, as written, would require scrapping or destroying his signature health care law?

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Kent Conrad

Conrad Applauds Fiscal Commissioners' Controversial Recommendations (VIDEO)

Brian Beutler | November 11, 2010, 10:34AM

Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND)

Senate Democrats' top budget guy spoke supportively this morning of the controversial proposal unveiled yesterday by the chairmen of the White House's fiscal commission.

"I am going to vote for proposals that do as much as this does in terms of reducing the debt," Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) said on ABC. "There is no way of doing it that's not controversial and difficult... if some of us have to sacrifice a political career to get this country back on track, then so be it. It has to be done."

Conrad stopped short of fully endorsing the plan, but in a later appearance on MSNBC suggested he thinks it's generally on point. "From 30,000 feet I think they are going in the right direction," Conrad said.

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Fiscal Commission

Debt Commission Chairmen Seek To Head Off Leaks, Put Positive Spin On Report

Brian Beutler | November 10, 2010, 3:00PM

Alan Simpson

The White House's debt commission co-chairs were not planning on publicly releasing their preliminary recommendations, at least not in such a hurried fashion. But the commissioners' reactions to their eye-popping proposals weren't exactly positive. And so, concerned about potential leaks and negative press, the co-chairs decided to unveil it and get ahead of the spin, according to a source with knowledge of the proceedings.

In that regard, this afternoon's briefing was a bid to keep the commission and its work from unraveling precipitously -- to lay out their discussion document publicly, as a starting point from which members will have to work.

"This is not a package that I could support," said Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) -- one of the only progressives on the panel -- told Bloomberg during a break at the commission's private meeting this morning.

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Fiscal Commission

Fiscal Commission Co-Chairs Simpson And Bowles Release Eye-Popping Recommendations

Megan Carpentier | November 10, 2010, 1:30PM

President Barack Obama President, with Erskine Bowles (left) and Sen. Alan Simpson (right.)

The White House's fiscal commission's co-chairs, Erskine Bowles and former-Sen. Alan Simpson today released their draft recommendations on how to reduce the country's budget deficit. But while the deficit, writ large, proved a potent political issue during the election season, the tough medicine recommended by Bowles and Simpson is likely to be met with more than a few raised eyebrows.

Their recommendations are more or less a list of the third-rail issues of American politics, including cuts in the number of federal workers; increasing the costs of participating in veterans and military health care systems; increasing the age of Social Security eligibility; and major cuts in defense and foreign policy spending. They also encompass a range of tax system reforms that have been floated by many in Washington for years to little effect, including funding tax rates reductions by eliminating many beloved credits and deductions.

Some of the recommendations:

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Social Security

1500 Tits For An A**: NOW Delivers Nipples To Alan Simpson

Brian Beutler | September 29, 2010, 12:53PM

The National Organization for Women had an unusual gift for Alan Simpson this morning. One thousand five hundred nipples. Or, as they termed it, "1500 Tits for an Ass."

Simpson, who co-chair's President Obama's deficit commission, regained notoriety this summer when he compared Social Security to a cow with 310 million tits. The milky metaphor was part of an angry email he sent to a critic -- Ashley Carson of the Older Women's League.

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Tax Cuts

Durbin: GOP Tax Cut Stubbornness Could Cripple Obama's Fiscal Commission

Brian Beutler | September 29, 2010, 9:01AM

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL)

One of the more progressive members of President Obama's fiscal commission acknowledged last night that the panel may find itself gridlocked if Republicans refuse to budge and agree to propose increasing tax revenue.

In a brief interview in the Senate press gallery, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin summed it up this way: "Any honest appraisal of our job and how we do it requires raising tax revenue, and reducing spending. If you don't do those two things, you can't reach your goal."

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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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Social Security

55 Dems Sign Letter To Obama Opposing Social Security Cuts, Privatization

Brian Beutler | September 20, 2010, 3:18PM

Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)

Over 50 House Democrats have now signed on to a letter, first obtained by TPM earlier this month, warning President Obama they'll oppose any effort on his part, or on the part of his fiscal commission, to cut Social Security benefits or privatize the program.

The letter was spearheaded by Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. It was originally cosigned by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Dan Maffei (D-NY), Mary Jo Kilroy (D-OH), Chellie Pingree (D-ME), and CPC co-chair Lynn Woolsey (D-CA). The advocacy groups Social Security Works, P Street Project (the lobbying arm of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee) and MoveOn helped organize the effort to add signatures.

They will continue to round up signatures through tomorrow, before the letter goes to the White House.

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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

House Democrats To Obama: No Cuts To Social Security

Brian Beutler | September 2, 2010, 3:38PM

Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)

Democrats led by Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair Raul Grijalva are drawing a line in the sand before the White House's fiscal commission: If your report recommends cuts or other changes to Social Security, they will say, you'll lose our support.

In a letter to be sent to President Obama, obtained by TPM, House Democrats will pledge to vote against any legislation based on the commission's report unless Social Security is taken off the table.

"We oppose any cuts to Social Security benefits, including raising the retirement age," the letter reads. "We also oppose any effort to privatize Social Security, in whole or in part.... If any of the Commission's recommendations cut or diminish Social Security in any way, we will stand firmly against them."

The effort is intended to tie the commission's hands, at least on this issue.

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Alan Simpson

Simpson: Veterans 'Not Helping Us' Save Country From Debt

Brian Beutler | September 1, 2010, 9:22AM

National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility co-chairman Alan Simpson

If Social Security is "a cow with 310 million tits" then what's the proper metaphor for veteran's benefits? We don't know. But Alan Simpson seems to think they're too expensive. Or too overused. Or something. Anyway, it's bad.

"The irony (is) that the veterans who saved this country are now, in a way, not helping us to save the country in this fiscal mess," said Alan Simpson, co-chair of the White House's fiscal commission, according to the Associated Press.

Simpson was referring specifically to the disability benefits the Department of Veterans Affairs dispenses to Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange.

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Social Security

Gibbs: Despite Titgate, Simpson 'Will Continue To Serve' On Debt Commission

Brian Beutler | August 30, 2010, 3:52PM

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs

Progressive activists have one more reason to be dissatisfied with the White House. A growing coalition of groups, along with members of Congress and Congressional hopefuls, have called in recent days for Social Security foe Alan Simpson to be fired from the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. Today, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said it's not gonna happen.

"Senator Simpson sent an email that he's now apologized for," Gibbs said at the daily White House press briefing today. "We regret that he sent that email. We don't condone those comments. But Senator Simpson has and will continue to serve on the commission."

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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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Social Security

Simpson Apologizes For Comparing Social Security To Cow With 310 Million Tits

Brian Beutler | August 25, 2010, 3:41PM

National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility co-chairman Alan Simpson

In an email to Ashley Carson, the executive director of the Older Women's League, Alan Simpson has apologized for comparing Social Security to a cow with 310 million tits.

"I apologize for what I wrote," Simpson writes.

I can see that my remarks have caused you anguish, and that was not my intention. I certainly did not intend to diminish your hard work for the Older Women's League. I know you care deeply about strengthening Social Security, and so do I, just as deeply. I remember your testimony at our public hearing in June about the importance of retirement security for women. Over the last 40 years, I have had my size 15 feet in my mouth a time or two. To quote my old friend and colleague, Senator Lloyd Bentsen, when I make a mistake, "It's a doozy!"

Progressive groups have called on Simpson to resign, and the AARP has declared that Simpson's initial remarks undermine the credibility of the White House's commission on fiscal reform, which he co-chairs.

AARP

AARP: Simpson's Remarks Cross The Line, Undermine Confidence In Deficit Commission

Brian Beutler | August 25, 2010, 3:22PM

Alan Simpson, co-chair of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform

The AARP -- one of the most influential advocacy groups in the country -- isn't taking too kindly to Alan Simpson's off color characterization of Social Security: "Senator Simpson's latest attack on Social Security is offensive for several reasons, particularly for belittling a bedrock program that is the foundation of family security for all generations," reads a statement from AARP Senior Vice President Drew Nannis.

The vast majority of the 310 million Americans he insulted - particularly 156 million women and younger Americans for whom the traditional pension will be a relic of history - don't have access to the type of traditional pension retirement security that Sen. Simpson has from his decades in Congress. Perhaps that's why his comments demonstrate a woeful disconnect from or disinterest in the challenges facing many American families for whom Social Security is literally a lifeline.

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Alan Simpson

Fiscal Commission Chair Simpson Goes After Another Critic In Social Security Debate

Brian Beutler | August 25, 2010, 1:37PM

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

You probably already know all about how Alan Simpson, co-chair of President Obama's commission on fiscal reform, compared Social Security to a "milk cow with 310 million tits" in an angry email to one of his critics. Well, it turns out he has a bit of a habit of hitting send before thinking.

Shortly after influential progressive economist, Dean Baker wrote this post at TPM Cafe, Simpson sent him an intemperate, condescending missive as well, seemingly unaware that one of Baker's main areas of expertise is Social Security.

"I only recently came across your column Alan Simpson: A Man Who intensely Wants to Cut Social Security," Simpson wrote. "If this is the way that you do your reporting, I would think that you would have damn few fans or readers! I'm not out to 'cut' anything. I'm out to stabilize the Social Security system and so, let me share with you what Stephen C. Goss, Chief Actuary of the Social Security Administration shared with the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform on May 12, 2010."

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Debt Commission

Source: Debt Commission Fights Over Freezing Military Pay, Slashing Benefits

Brian Beutler | August 5, 2010, 2:30PM

President Barack Obama with Defense Secretary Robert Gates (left), and Navy Admiral Michael Mullen (right)

Republicans would like you to think that Democrats have sinister plans for the post-election lame duck session of Congress, and Democrats are at pains to insist otherwise. But the one winter initiative progressives fear most is being crafted off the Hill by the White House's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. Though most of the commission's work occurs behind closed doors in small working groups, early reports indicate that the GOP's unwillingness to support any significant tax increases are pushing the group toward proposed entitlement slashes and larger budget cuts.

And while Americans might expect that the commission would look at all spending, some members are seemingly using their positions to advance professional interests. A source familiar with the proceedings of the working group on discretionary spending tells TPM that some commissioners, including one military contractor, would prefer to save money by freezing military pay and scaling back benefits, rather than by eliminating waste in defense contracting.

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