Gregg softens tone toward Obama fiscal commission

Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) left the door open to serving on a bipartisan fiscal commission created by President Barack Obama, softening his tone toward an idea he dismissed last month.

"I'm not ruling out, I'm willing to listen," the ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee told The Hill on Monday.

He added that it was too early for him to judge the president's plan for a commission, which would be tasked with producing a package of fiscal reforms to slow the rise in federal debt, because its details have yet to be announced. Obama has yet to reach out to Senate Republicans about the commission, Gregg said.

Two weeks ago, Gregg said he wouldn't join an Obama-created panel. 

"I call it a nothing-burger," Gregg said. "Would I serve on it? No."

Gregg has pushed Congress to pass a fiscal commission, arguing that it would be stronger than one created by the president. The plan by Gregg 
and Budget committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) is similar to Obama's upcoming commission in that it calls for a bipartisan panel of lawmakers and administration officials to recommend fiscal reforms, such as tax increases, spending cuts and changes to entitlement benefits.

But unlike the commission that Obama plans to create by executive order, the Gregg-Conrad panel would have the ability to force lawmakers in both chambers to vote on its recommendations without considering amendments to them.

Gregg said he's still hoping for another vote on his proposal. It received the support of 53 senators during a vote last week but needed 60 senators to be adopted. Though Obama backed a commission created by Congress in the days before the vote, Gregg said that the White House should have provided more support.

Gregg said he still viewed the Obama commission as inferior to his plan, calling a presidential commission a "political exercise."

"It can't guarantee a vote, can't guarantee fast-track [consideration] and can't guarantee no amendments because the executive branch doesn't 
control the legislative branch," Gregg said.

He also voiced skepticism over whether the Obama panel would be bipartisan since it would be created by a Democratic president.

"Don't you think it's a little ironic that they haven't released what they're proposing to do and are claiming it's bipartisan?" Gregg asked.

Obama's 2011 budget proposal, unveiled Monday, calls for a fiscal commission created by executive order. The budget plan projects for the next decade an average deficit of $850 billion, a level that the White House acknowledges is unsustainable. To lower the deficit, the administration is counting on the expiration of tax cuts, a new tax on large financial firms, savings in discretionary spending and reforms emerging from the fiscal commission.

Gregg earlier Monday criticized Obama's budget proposal as "more of the same"

"More spending, more borrowing and more taxes," he said. "After a year in office that has put us on a pace to double the debt by 2013, the president should have a tougher plan to address our fiscal crisis, because this budget will solve nothing."

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