House GOP leaders to meet with Erskine Bowles on debt

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and other House Republican leaders plan to meet on Wednesday with Erskine Bowles, the former White House chief of staff who served as Democratic co-chairman of President Obama’s debt commission.

Bowles is a co-founder of the “Fix the Debt” coalition of CEOs and civic leaders pushing for a fiscal grand bargain.

“People in both parties agree we need a ‘balanced approach’ to deal with our deficit and debt and help our economy create jobs,” Boehner said in a statement. 

“As we’ve seen in recent days, the American people support an approach that involves both major spending cuts and additional revenue via tax reform with lower tax rates. We look forward to talking to Mr. Bowles and other members of the coalition about their ideas to avert the ‘fiscal cliff’ without tax hikes that target small businesses and cost jobs.” 

The meeting comes as progress has slowed in negotiations between the White House and congressional leaders on a deal to avert the "fiscal cliff" of scheduled spending cuts and tax increases.

House Republicans rejected the plan crafted by Bowles and former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.) in 2010 that included more than $1 trillion in tax increases. But Boehner’s office noted that Bowles presented his own separate plan during testimony before the congressional “supercommittee” on deficit reduction last year.

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