Conrad: Bipartisan deficit plan needed by time of debt ceiling vote

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) at a Tuesday hearing said that his committee should aim to come up with a bipartisan deficit reduction plan by the time the nation’s debt ceiling is reached this spring.

A bipartisan group of 30 senators met early Tuesday morning to work on formulating such a plan.

A showdown between Republicans and the White House over raising the limit is expected to come in May. Conrad wants to turn the vote into an opportunity to strike a bipartisan deal on the long-term debt.

Conrad reiterated his call for a fiscal summit with the White House to come up with such a plan and reiterated that in the absence of such a summit, his committee would have to take the lead in crafting one.

Ranking member Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said that he is happy to join the effort. Committee member Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said 30 senators had met at the request of Conrad Tuesday morning to work on a deficit plan.

Conrad has said that he would not vote to raise the nation’s $14.3 trillion debt limit unless there is a long-term deficit plan.

“What other committee is going to take this on?” he said. “It is very important that this be done before we get into a debate on the debt-limit extension.”

“We could lose credibility in the bond market if that has to be the leverage,” he added. “I don’t think we can wait for that.”

Republicans want to use the debt-limit vote to force the White House to accept either deep cuts to discretionary spending or a balanced budget amendment. Conrad said that discretionary cuts are not sufficient and could harm the recovery if done too soon.

Conrad said Tuesday that he is concerned about a focus on non-defense discretionary spending, which is only 16 percent of spending, including by the president in his State of the Union address.

“If you eliminate it all, you haven’t solved this problem,” he said.

He said that the reason for the focus is that the public in polls says that Medicare, Social Security, defense ad revenue should not be touched.

"If that is the case … it is a mathematical certainty you can’t solve the problem."

At the hearing, Sessions countered that early cuts to discretionary spending would be a down payment on future cuts. He also said the GOP shares the blame for the current fiscal woes.

"I have criticized the Bush administration: Somehow the word got around that 'deficits don’t matter,'" he said.