Erskine Rides Again
2011-07-21 - by
The Gang of Six’s “big solution” to the federal budget sounds a lot like the recommendations of the study commission that Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson chaired last year.
It makes Democrats mad by reining in entitlements and by raising revenues about $1 for every $3 in spending cuts.
It makes Tea Party Republicans mad by raising revenues $1.
If Washington adopts that solution – either short- or long-term – it will be the second time in just over a decade that North Carolina’s Bowles has saved the federal budget.
In the late 1990s, as President Clinton’s COS, Bowles negotiated a balanced budget with then-Speaker Newt Gingrich, who was chastened by his bloodying over the 1995-1996 government shutdown.
The result was that in 2000, Clinton’s last year in office, the federal government had a budget SURPLUS of $200 billion. The debate was over what to do with that money. Some experts said that, at that rate, the entire federal debt could be paid off by 2013.
Didn’t happen.
But now, maybe, it’s Erskine to the rescue again.
Erskine Rides Again
2011-07-21/
The Gang of Six’s “big solution” to the federal budget sounds a lot like the recommendations of the study commission that Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson chaired last year.
It makes Democrats mad by reining in entitlements and by raising revenues about $1 for every $3 in spending cuts.
It makes Tea Party Republicans mad by raising revenues $1.
If Washington adopts that solution – either short- or long-term – it will be the second time in just over a decade that North Carolina’s Bowles has saved the federal budget.
In the late 1990s, as President Clinton’s COS, Bowles negotiated a balanced budget with then-Speaker Newt Gingrich, who was chastened by his bloodying over the 1995-1996 government shutdown.
The result was that in 2000, Clinton’s last year in office, the federal government had a budget SURPLUS of $200 billion. The debate was over what to do with that money. Some experts said that, at that rate, the entire federal debt could be paid off by 2013.
Didn’t happen.
But now, maybe, it’s Erskine to the rescue again.