Conrad tied to Obama's failure to embrace Bowles-Simpson, book says

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) played a key role in convincing President Obama to ignore the findings of his own deficit commission, according to Bob Woodward's new book The Price of Politics.

"Though Conrad had been the impetus behind the Simpson-Bowles fiscal commission and had served on it and voted for the final product, he had urged Obama not to endorse or embrace it because it would mobilize Republican opposition and House Republicans would automatically oppose it," the book states.

The deficit commission's December 2010 plan, authored by chairmen Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, got bipartisan support when Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) joined Conrad in voting in favor of it.

Obama's 2011 State of the Union address, however, ignored the plan — which had a combination of spending cuts and revenue-generating tax reform as well as cuts to Social Security. 

Later that year, Obama tried to engage House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on a deal with a similar structure but those secret talks failed. The failure of those talks is also tied to Gang of Six senate negotiations, in which Conrad participated. Those talks featured a plan that generated more revenue than Boehner and Obama had discussed, and roiled the secretive talks.

In hindsight, some deficit hawks have argued that running with the original Bowles-Simpson plan publicly could have been more productive.

The deficit commission reemerged last month as a campaign issue when GOP vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) hit Obama, in his convention address, for failing to embrace Bowles-Simpson.

The White House fired back that Ryan had served on the commission and had voted against the plan, making clear it did not have support in the House.

Conrad's office did not immediately provide comment on the book, an excerpt of which was obtained by The Hill.

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