Simpson-Bowles gets another shot in House

The House will vote this week on language calling on President Obama to use the Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction plan as a way to cut the budget deficit.

But if the proposal goes the way similar language did last year, it will fail in a rout.

The Simpson-Bowles language will come in the form of an amendment to legislation that House Republicans are hoping will force Obama to balance the budget. Under the Require a PLAN Act, H.R. 444, Obama would have to submit a proposed date for a balanced budget, and a plan for getting there.

The amendment is a bipartisan proposal that recommends Obama should use the Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction plan as a basis for getting to a balanced budget.

"These recommendations enjoy wide bipartisan support and should be considered the basis for meeting the requirements of this Act," says the language from Reps. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.), Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.), Chris Gibson (R-N.Y.) and Frank Wolf (R-Va.).

Many Republicans opposed the Simpson-Bowles plan for its recommendation to lean mostly on significant tax increases in order to reduce the deficit, even as it spared the 2010 healthcare law that Republicans opposed.

But when the plan was brought up last March as an alternative House budget resolution, most Democrats also opposed it as a basis for a budget plan. Members rejected it in a 38-382 vote.

That same day, the House voted unanimously against President Obama's 2013 budget plan, in a 0-414 vote.

The House will start consideration of the Require a PLAN Act on Tuesday, but work on amendments, including the Simpson-Bowles amendment, is expected Wednesday.

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