Budget

Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) announced his support Wednesday for the revised fiscal plan produced by the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. 

Although Conrad, a member of the fiscal commission, disagrees with parts of the proposal, he is supporting the package "because it represents genuine bipartisan compromise, with both Democrats and Republicans making concessions," he said in a statement.  

"I don’t like everything in this package, but I like even less where our country is headed without it," he said. "It would be much easier to say no and to oppose this plan. I certainly would have done some things differently if I were writing it myself. But you can’t have everything you want."

Conrad joins Senate Budget ranking member Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) in support the revised plan released Wednesday morning.  

"Anyone watching the spreading debt crisis in Europe over the last few days — in Ireland, Portugal and Spain — understands the threat we face is real," Conrad said. "We can’t afford to wait until the crisis is upon us."

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Senate Budget Committee ranking member Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) said Wednesday morning that despite its imperfections, he will support the revised report produced by leaders of the fiscal commission. 

"There are no easy fixes here, so while I do not agree with all parts of the co-chairmen’s final proposal, I will support it because it represents a step forward that we urgently need," Gregg said in a statement. "Lawmakers in Washington are elected to make the decisions necessary to keep our country safe from harm and on solid economic footing. Inaction on our debt crisis is not an option at this point."

The panel moved on Tuesday to change Wednesday's scheduled vote to Friday to provide more time to lobby the panel's members on the final plan. The commission's co-chairmen released their proposal Nov. 10 and have since defended it while making revisions.

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A key Republican member of President Obama's fiscal commission said Wednesday that he could support the panel's final proposals.

Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), the top GOP member of the Senate Budget Committee, said that despite the report's flaws, it represents maybe the best attempt at reducing the deficit and debt.

"It is," Gregg said on Bloomberg Television when asked if the commission's final report, due this morning, was something he could support.

"It's got some warts to say the least, but no one's going to get everything they want," he said. "This is the right step; it's time to govern."

Gregg's support means at least one commissioner of the panel President Obama had assembled would back the final proposal. But the commission's bipartisan co-chairmen have all but said outright that getting the 14 votes necessary to approve the final recommendations and send them to Congress would be difficult.

The proposals include measures to significantly cut spending, including through reforms of Social Security, along with measures to raise revenues. Liberal Democrats have protested the changes to Social Security, and Republicans are seen as unlikely to sign onto any proposal remotely resembling a tax hike.

"It`s a big ask to get 14 out of 18, as you know from your years on Capitol Hill, and particularly when you look at the partisan breakdown here," cautioned Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), the No. 2 Senate Democrat, last night on MSNBC. "It doesn't take many people to make this deal fall apart."

With other members of the commission talking down aspects of the plan, supporters of the final report have sought to downplay the outcome of the panel's vote, which is slated for Congres.

"I'm almost of the opinion that the vote doesn't matter that much," Gregg said.

The co-chairmen of the commission said they are prepared for a rocky reception when they release their deficit-cutting proposal Wednesday.

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To counter what they call the “conservative clamor for austerity,” a coalition of liberal non-governmental organizations and labor unions on Tuesday proposed its own alternative deficit-cutting proposal that would ramp up stimulus spending in the short-term and focus on spending cuts in the defense budget.

The Citizens’ Commission on Jobs, Deficits and America’s Economic Future calls for $1 trillion in stimulus spending over the next two years and continued investment of $450 billion per year thereafter. It proposes no spending cuts until the unemployment rate drops to 5.5 percent, down from October’s 9.6 percent.

The coalition plans a major labor-backed push for its plan based on the 2005 effort that successfully ended President Bush’s drive to win changes to Social Security, said Robert Borosage, co-director of the Campaign for America’s Future. He told reporters Tuesday the coalition is pushing the Congressional Progressive Caucus to adopt its recommendations as the centerpiece of its platform next year.

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Eight Republican senators on Tuesday voted to preserve earmark spending despite pressure from the Tea Party movement.

Sens. Thad Cochran (Miss.), Susan Collins (Maine), James Inhofe (Okla.), Dick Lugar (Ind.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Richard Shelby (Ala.) voted against an amendment to food-safety legislation that would have enacted a two-year ban on the spending items. Retiring Sen. George Voinovich (Ohio) and defeated Sen. Bob Bennett (Utah) also voted against it. 

Senate Republicans had already passed a voluntary earmark ban, but Tuesday's vote shows that the conference is still divided over the issue. The overall Senate proposal failed 39-56.

Even though earmarks represent a small portion of overall discretionary spending, Tea Party activists have pressured lawmakers to outlaw the practice, saying it is a good way to start reining in high spending. 

Of the senators who voted against it, only Lugar faces reelection in 2012. Most observers anticipate that the veteran senator will receive a conservative primary challenger. Four other GOP senators in danger of facing a serious primary challenge — Bob Corker (Miss.), Kay Bailey Hutchison (Texas), Orrin Hatch (Utah) and Olympia Snowe (Maine) — all voted in favor of banning earmarks. 

Snowe vote against a similar proposal in March.

Bennett was forced out of power by a Tea Party-backed challenger. He lost his bid to be re-nominated at the Utah GOP convention in May.

Two Democrats facing potentially tough reelection battles in 2012 also voted for the earmark moratorium: Sens. Claire McCaskill (Mo.) and Bill Nelson (Fla.)

Retiring Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) and defeated Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) also voted for the earmark ban, as did Colorado Sens. Michael Bennet (D) and Mark Udall (D) and Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.)

None of the "big ideas" proposed by the co-chairs of President Obama's deficit commission will garner enough support to be included in a panel report, a key Republican said Monday. 

In a speech Monday night at D.C.'s American University, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said he admires many of the deficit reduction strategies proposed earlier this month by Democrat Erskine Bowles and former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.), the co-chairmen of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.

In a five-step preliminary proposal, Bowles and Simpson recommended, among other things, raising the retirement age and cutting the federal workforce by 10 percent.

"At this point, though," Ryan said, "I don't see any area where you're going to get 14 votes on any of these big ideas."

The 18 member commission must secure 14 votes in order for a proposal to become a formal recommendation in the commission's final report. The group hopes to complete its report this month. 

Ryan is a member of the commission and is in line to become chairman of the House Budget Committee in January.

The Obama administration's proposal to freeze pay for federal workers is a "clear indication" that the GOP's Pledge to America is the correct way forward, and the White House should take the next step and halt the hiring of federal workers, according to Speaker-designate John Boehner (R-Ohio).

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The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform canceled a planned public meeting set for Tuesday morning as negotiations continue on a draft budget-reduction proposal. 

Co-chairmen Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson of the bipartisan deficit commission will hold a press conference at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday instead, on the eve of the release and expected vote on a final proposal from the group, the panel announced Monday.

The public meeting was scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Tuesday. 

A meeting scheduled for Wednesday morning, when the panel's 18 members are expected to vote on a final plan, is still on, the group said. At least 14 votes are needed to issue a formal budget-reduction proposal to provide Congress with a roadmap on a broader plan to reduce the deficit. 

At this point, approving a plan could be a long shot. 

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Representatives of three liberal advocacy groups on Monday blasted President Obama’s proposed two-year freeze on federal civilian worker pay.

John Irons of the Economic Policy Institute, Tamara Draut of Demos and Greg Anrig of The Century Foundation said it is a mistake to freeze pay until the economic recovery from the recent recession has taken hold more firmly.

“We think that is a terrible idea. We should be raising wages,” Irons said in a press call. “It is unclear why the president would want to do this.”

“It reinforces the concern we have that the focus has shifted from creating jobs to deficit reduction. It is far too soon to be doing that. We need to be focusing on ways to lower 9.6 percent unemployment,” Anrig said.

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