WASHINGTON — Determined to have a deficit commission with or without Congress’ backing, President Obama plans to announce on Thursday that he is establishing a panel similar to — although weaker than– the one lawmakers rejected.
Former White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles and former Republican Senate Whip Alan Simpson would lead the panel, a senior administration official said Tuesday. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the president’s executive order creating the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform had not been announced.
The deficit spiked to an extraordinary $1.4 trillion last year and could top that figure this year as the struggling economy puts a big dent in tax revenues. Even worse from the perspective of economists and deficit hawks, the medium-term deficit picture is for deficits to hit around $1 trillion a year for the foreseeable future.
Obama and his economic team have said repeatedly that this is not sustainable. He told lawmakers during his State of the Union address that he would go around their vote and appoint a version of a deficit commission.
[More]
See Also:
Report: 2011 Economic Time Bomb Will Hurt All of U.S.
Updates:
2:08 pm EST, February 17th, 2010 — Morris: Obama is Ruining His Presidency and His Party
2:12 pm EST, February 17th, 2010 — Obama Defeats FDR (in Spending Other People’s Money)
I hope that people the world over will learn from this American mistake and not vote for a candidate based on the colour of his/her skin. An amazingly high percentage of the Americans I spoke to admitted the reason they were voting FOR Owebambam was because he was ‘black’. They didn’t care about his resume, his record or his ability and so they got the most incompetent POTUS in history running the nation when it is most vulnerable. One of the signs of that gross incompetence is his delegating the responsibility that rightfully belongs to him to things like the Deficit Panel. Owebambam you don’t need a panel; start vetoing some of the out of control spending coming to you via the congress and senate.
The first ___(insert group name)___ anything has heard that canard, Joe. It starts with the belief that a _______ can’t possibly be qualified to do the job. Then the detractors nit pick at every mistake real and imagined, while overattributing any ailments. As a result “Owebama” is now “ownbama”, as he just inherited 30 years of budget mismanagement onto his resume. And as Ward has said, “It will be a long time before we elect one of THEM again”.
The ______ have heard it all before, and if Obama thought he was exempt now he knows …
Yeah but Cy you were the guy who was all for the ANC because they were black which proves my point. Racist voting is a road to disaster. The American people should have recognized the need to get their financial house in order about the time of LBJ. They didn’t. Now the crisis is upon them and they vote for the most incompetent spendthrift in history because he has black skin. My criticism of Owebambam has nothing to do with skin colour. Should he suddenly turn around and curb the spending, reduce the debt, and put in place restrictions on future spending, clean up the corruption I would call him one of the greatest presidents in the history of the US. What has he done? Well he took a huge deficit and tripled it in a year. He took a promise of ‘no earmarks’ and passed a stimulus bill packed with earmarks and what’s more is he wants to pass another one. Everything he has done financially has shown either willful negligence or gross incompetence. If the American people learn anything I hope it is this, Vote for Competence not Skin Colour! If in the future the Americans vote for an incompetent white instead of a competent black because the incompetent white is white then the American people will have learned nothing from the disaster they have now occupying the white house.
Yeah but Cy you were the guy who was all for the ANC because they were black which proves my point
Wherever did you get that stupid idea? The ANC isn’t all black anyway. Never was. I oppose apartheid 100% and am not apologetic for it. I support whatever action is/was necessary to defeat it, but any fool knows that 1-party rule is a recipe for disaster. The ANC needs competition and quickly.
As for Obama, having not backed most of his policies, I don’t feel compelled to make excuses for him. Will continue to question the “wording” of some of the opposition I’m hearing here. Also, the experience issue, since your mascot was a lowly corrupt town mayor just a few years ago.
“since your mascot was a lowly corrupt town mayor just a few years ago”. Are you speaking of Palin? She’s not my choice for anything. I don’t vote for jingoists. That being said I have also heard most impartial observers say that she did a good job as mayor and an equally good job as governor. The few Alaskans I’ve heard from say that Alaska will someday wish for Palin to be governor again. I’ve also read the vicious left and vicious right slag her whcih says she was probably doing something right. What ever you may think of her governing record you must admit she had more governing experience than Owebambam had before he became president. Based on the polls I’ve seen I think she was more successful at governing than Owebambam is too.
I wonder if the Chinese would like to be on this panel having such an interest in the american debt?