Budget

In an 11-7 vote, President Obama's fiscal commission failed to adopt a sweeping plan for reining in the deficit.

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Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) announced in an opinion article published on the Chicago Tribune website late Thursday that he will vote in favor of the president's deficit commission plan. Durbin's announcement makes him the tenth vote in favor of the plan, but it will not be enough for the plan to win full deficit commission approval.

So far five members of the commission have stated they will vote against the plan: Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Reps. David Camp (D-Mich.), Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and former Service Employees International Union president Andy Stern. The plan needs 14 of 18 commissioners to vote in favor for it to be approved under commission by-laws. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) had said they would bring it up for floor votes if it got official approval.

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Durbin in his opinion piece said he is voting in favor of the plan in part because of changes the panel's chairmen made at his request. These include recommending a payroll tax holiday in the short term, a delay in most spending cuts until 2013 and infrastructure investment over the long term. He also said that it was at his insistance that the commission recommmends eliminating all tax credits in favor of lower tax rates.

“Why is a progressive like Dick Durbin voting for this deficit commission report? First, all politicians, left or right, Democrat or Republican, have to acknowledge the deficit crisis our nation faces. Borrowing 40 cents out of every dollar we spend for missiles or food stamps is unsustainable. And being indebted for generations to China and OPEC does not make American a stronger nation,” he wrote.

The Senate on Thursday night cleared a short-term stopgap measure to keep the government running through Dec. 18.

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"No" votes from Stern, Baucus and Camp appear to leave chairmen short of necessary support.

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Incoming House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) made clear Thursday he intends to use a vote next spring on raising the debt ceiling to exact spending concessions from the Obama administration and Democrats.

Republicans voted against raising the debt ceiling repeatedly in the Democratic-run House, and some incoming Republican members have said the debt ceiling should not be raised.

Ryan said the ceiling is sure to be reached next year, however, and he argued Republicans can use a vote on the debt limit to win spending caps from the administration. He agreed that failing to raise the ceiling risks default and would send an alarming signal that the U.S. might not be able to pay back its debts that could hurt the economy.

Ryan said he willing to compromise to get a deficit-reduction deal through Congress.

“No one party is going to fix this debt problem, that’s not going to happen,” he said. “This fix to our debt, whenever it happens, will have to be bipartisan.”

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President Obama's fiscal commission will not have the votes to pass its proposal to reduce the nation's debt and deficit, a powerful member of the panel predicted Thursday.

Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) -- the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee who supports the commission's plan -- said that 14 of 18 commission members are unlikely to back the proposal, but that the proposal could send a "powerful message" to Congress.

"I don’t think we’re going to get to 14 but look if we get a majority of this commission in favor of this plan, I think that’s going to send a very powerful message here in Washington and across the country," Conrad said on Fox Business Network.

Earlier on Thursday, Republican Sens. Tom Coburn (Okla.) and Mike Crapo (Idaho), both members of the commission, said they would support the plan, boosting the number of panel members who support the plan to nine. 

Only one more commissioner would need to announce his or her support for the plan to form a majority. But Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said Thursday he would oppose the plan, meaning the plan could be sunk with the vote of only one more panelist.

The bipartisan panel's plan to reduce the deficit has met opposition from both liberal and conservative lawmakers and advocacy groups, who have expressed worry over its potential tax hikes and spending cuts, as well as serious changes to Social Security.

Conrad said that, "I think we’re going to see some more announce that they are in favor."

Former SEIU president Andy Stern would not reveal how he will vote on president Obama's fiscal commission plan, but said he will decide “tonight.”

Stern detailed what he views as various flaws in the plan, but when asked if that means he will reject the commission's proposal, he responded, “No.”

The debt commission is set to vote Friday on the plan submitted by co-chairman Alan Simpson, a former Republican senator from Wyoming, and Erskine Bowles, the former Clinton White House chief of staff.

If 14 of the 18 members of the commission support the proposal, it would be adopted. Democratic leaders in the House and Senate have pledged to hold a vote on its recommendations in that scenario, though incoming Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has not committed to a vote in the next Congress.

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House conservatives on the debt panel have signaled they'll oppose a chairmen's proposal at a Friday vote.

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The incoming chairman of the House Budget Committee said he'll vote against the debt-reduction plan.

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Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) gave his blessing on Thursday to the series of tax reforms called for by President Obama's fiscal commission.

DeMint, an influential conservative, said he was intrigued by the tax proposals made on Wednesday by the fiscal panel, which call for lower overall rates, but vastly reduced deductions.

"As I look at this proposal, one of the parts that intrigues me the most is the reform of the tax code," DeMint said on "The Early Show" on CBS.

"A simplification of the taxes, elimination of all deductions, lowering the tax rates for individuals and businesses," he explained. "I think this would do more to reduce the debt and improve the economy and increase employment in the economy — a lot of things we would do if we would focus on this."

DeMint is not a member of the 18-member commission, but his support could be critical to advancing any of the panel's proposals, should they make their way through Congress. The South Carolina senator is seen as the de-facto leader of a bloc of freshman conservative senators whom he helped elect this fall. That group's support could be key to passing tax reforms, and DeMint's support could lead other conservatives to get on board.

A spokesman for DeMint emphasized, though, that the conservative hasn't endorsed all the tax proposals.

"Senator DeMint appreciates the commission starting a real discussion about the debt crisis, however he has not endorsed all of the aspects of the plan’s spending and tax proposals," said Wesley Denton, a spokesman for DeMint. "The final report has not been released, but the initial summary while rightly moving toward a flat tax also includes troubling tax increases that amount to nearly $1 trillion in new death taxes, gas taxes, and other tax hikes. Our debt crisis is the result of a high spending problem, not a low tax problem.”

Republicans had been seen as likely to balk at any proposal that remotely resembles a tax hike, especially in the midst of a heated congressional debate over the fate of the Bush tax cuts.

DeMint stopped short of backing all the recommendations, which are set to receive a vote from the 18 commissioners on Friday. If 14 of them back the plan, it would head to Congress for an up-or-down vote.

"Some other parts of it I don't like, but I want to consider the whole thing," he said. "I'm frankly appreciative we've started the whole process."

—Updated 11:49 a.m.