A Reaction To Simpson And Bowles New Deficit Reduction Plan

Obama appointed Simpson and Bowles to head up a deficit reduction committee.  They were unable to produce a plan that could muster enough votes on the committee to submit the the president.  Republicans on the committee did not approve of the tax increases.  This put the president in a difficult position.  His base was unhappy with the summary of the plan that was made public and he not assurance that Republicans would support tax increases if he tried to implement the recommendations.  This cost him a lot of support from moderates who believe that something needs to be done about future budget deficits.

A group of CEO's has picked up the ball on Simpson and Bowles.  They have sponsored them to give public speeches about deficit reduction and to come up with a new plan.  Their new plan reduces the tax increases and it increases the spending cuts that were in the old plan.  This article describes the new plan and takes issues with many of the details.