Posts Tagged ‘National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility & Reform’
Wednesday, September 8th, 2010
RICHARD “DICK” DURBIN (D-IL)
Member
Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, was first elected to the Senate in 1996. He serves as the Democratic Majority Whip and on the Senate Appropriations, Judiciary, and Rules committees. Before being elected to the Senate, Sen. Durbin spent 14 years in the U.S. House of Representatives.
In a press release issued in April by his office, Sen. Durbin said he wanted the fiscal commission to focus on three things (none of which, we note, are spending cuts): “avoiding harm to the current recovery; raising revenue more equitably, including the revenue we spend on tax breaks for the wealthy and not the middle class; and developing a vision for our country which considers the impact of growing income disparity.”
At the City Club of Chicago last month, Sen. Durbin did note that Congress should consider small cuts, particularly for defense and agriculture. The senator also said Congress should raise taxes on Americans who earn more than $250,000 and pass another stimulus, this time focusing on increased spending for infrastructure and education. When it comes to Social Security, Sen. Durbin said he’d be open to raising the retirement age and raising the cap on income subject to Social Security taxes.
Regardless of the proposals he’s personally made, Sen. Durbin is skeptical about what the commission can accomplish. According to USA Today’s political blog, in June, Sen. Durbin said, “I don’t know if it’s [agreement] politically possible, when I look around the table.” The fiscal commission needs 14 of its 18 members to agree on proposed recommendations before it can even issue a report.
Tags: deficit commission, Dick Durbin, fiscal commission, Just the Facts, National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility & Reform
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Wednesday, September 1st, 2010
REP. JEB HENSARLING (R-TX)
Member
Rep. Jeb Hensarling, who was first elected in 2002, sits on the House Budget and Financial Services committees.
Like many of his Commission colleagues, Rep. Hensarling has argued Social Security must be on the table when considering how to solve the country’s long-term debt problems. He told MSNBC’s Chris Matthews in February the system would have to be “reengineered” for Americans under age 55.
Rep. Hensarling is author of the Family Budget Protection Act, a bill dedicated to reforming the budget process. The bill would impose spending caps, set “expiration dates” for all new programs passed by Congress (which would require Congress to vote to extend spending – and thus to review a program’s effectiveness), and eliminate baseline budgeting (estimating spending increases for future years).
Rep. Hensarling is probably best known for his vote against the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP – the 2008 Wall Street bailout plan) and for his exchange on the debt and deficit with President Barack Obama last January.
Tags: Congress, deficit commission, fiscal commission, House, Just the Facts, National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility & Reform
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Wednesday, August 25th, 2010
REP. XAVIER BECERRA (D-CA)
Member
Rep. Xavier Becerra, a Democrat, has represented California’s 31st congressional district since 1992. He is currently the vice chairman of the House Democratic Caucus and a member of the House Ways and Means and Budget committees.
Rep. Becerra has historically voted in favor of deficit-fighting packages, including the 1997 Balanced Budget Agreement, which, according to the Congressional Budget Office, was expected to cut the deficit by $127 billion over five years.
But Rep. Becerra is also in favor of larger government. While he voted for the recent health reform bill, he wasn’t pleased with it. He said he preferred a publicly-funded health care system and wanted to allow illegal immigrants the right to buy health insurance. And when Commission chairman Erskine Bowles, also a Democrat, recently praised fiscal austerity measures undertaken in Britain, Rep. Becerra disagreed. “How we resolve our economic challenge is premised on an American solution … It won’t be the British solution,” Becerra said.
Rep. Becerra is a member of the Commission’s tax reform working group. A July 22 Twitter post seemed to indicate the Congressman favors increasing taxes on all Americans in order to close the deficit. “Mtg w/ Fiscal Commission tax reform group; we all must share in pain if we want to share in gain of balanced budgets,” Rep. Becerra Twittered. Rep. Becerra also discussed possible tax increases with Southern California Public Radio.
You can view the remarks Rep. Becerra’s at Commission meetings here.
Tags: CBO, Congress, Congressional Budget Office, deficit commission, fiscal commission, Just the Facts, National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility & Reform, Xavier Becerra
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Friday, August 13th, 2010
SEN. TOM COBURN (R-OK)
Member
Elected to the Senate in 2004, Sen. Coburn is a member of the committees on Judiciary, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Intelligence, Indian Affairs, and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Before his tenure in the Senate, Sen. Coburn served in the House of Representatives from 1995 to 2001.
Sen. Coburn is probably best known for his opposition to pork barrel spending. In 2005, he tried to block $453 million for two bridges in Alaska, including the infamous “bridge to nowhere.” Sen. Coburn’s attempt failed overwhelmingly. A Senate committee recently approved a Coburn-sponsored bill calling for a database tracking all earmark requests made by lawmakers.
In May, Sen. Coburn wrote to the two chairs of the fiscal commission in favor of a freeze in the Pentagon’s “base” budget (funding for things other than the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan) over the next two fiscal years.
Sen. Coburn, an obstetrician, has been dubbed “The Senate’s Dr. No.” The senator has used – some say abused – the power of a single senator to hold up legislation he or she does not favor. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has said of Coburn’s tactics: l think it’s a way an individual tries to exacerbate their power, and it’s really unfortunate.” A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) added: “No wonder it’s so hard to get things done when a handful of junior members insist on a their-way-or-the-highway approach to legislating.”
Tags: deficit commission, earmark reform, earmarks, fiscal commission, Government Spending, National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility & Reform, spending cuts, Tom Coburn
Posted in Blog, Government Spending | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, August 4th, 2010
SEN. MAX BAUCUS (D-MT)
Members
Sen. Baucus became a senator in 1978 when he was appointed to fill a vacancy. Sen. Baucus is Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, as well as a member of the committees on Agriculture, Environment and Public Works, and Joint Tax (a non-partisan committee with Members from both the Senate and the House of Representatives).
Sen. Baucus has a varied record when it comes to the most historic tax and spending votes of the past 20 years. He voted against the 1990 budget reconciliation, which raised taxes and established pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) procedures. He voted for President Bill Clinton’s 1993 budget reconciliation, which cut spending and raised taxes, and for the 1997 Balanced Budget agreement, which, according to the Congressional Budget Office, would cut the deficit by $127 billion over five years Sen. Baucus was also one of a handful of Democrats who voted for the 2001 tax cuts, which lowered rates for all income-tax payers. He voted against the 2003 tax cuts.
Though he is now a member of the so-called ‘fiscal commission,’ Baucus originally “vehemently” opposed its creation. According to Government Executive magazine, he said the commission would “usurp” the power of elected officials.
Unlike many of his commission colleagues, who publicly say “everything” must be one the table when it comes to tackling the deficit, Sen. Baucus said, according to The Washington Post, “Social Security should be off-limits because it is not the primary source of long-term fiscal imbalance.”
Tags: deficit commission, fiscal commission, Government Spending, Max Baucus, National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility & Reform, Senate, Senate Finance Committee
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Wednesday, July 28th, 2010
REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI)
Member
Rep. Paul Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin, is serving his sixth term in the U.S. House of Representatives. Ryan is the Ranking Member of the Committee on the Budget, and is a senior Member of the Ways and Means Committee.
Rep. Ryan is the author of Congress’ only comprehensive economic and fiscal reform legislation, called “A Roadmap for America’s Future,” which lays out a long-term plan to address the nation’s massive shortfalls in health and retirement entitlement programs, to reform the problematic tax code, and to alleviate the future debt crisis. (You can read the Congressional Budget Office’s analysis of the plan here.)
While Ryan’s Roadmap focuses on reducing unsustainable spending – rather than raising taxes – to right the nation’s economic and fiscal imbalances, the Congressman has been criticized not only by Democrats, but by his own party on a recent key spending vote: Rep. Ryan voted for the much-maligned Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) . Some fiscal conservatives have also criticized his “Roadmap” because it contains a “business consumption tax,” which, they say, is essentially a value-added tax (VAT) for job creators.
Rep. Ryan has said he’s skeptical of what the Fiscal Commission can get done: “While I have serious concerns about what this commission can actually achieve, I hope it spurs a genuine effort to tackle the looming crisis of unsustainable entitlement spending, the greatest threat to our nation’s fiscal and economic future.”
Tags: budget committee, Congress, deficit commission, fiscal commission, House, house budget committee, National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility & Reform, Paul Ryan
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Monday, July 12th, 2010
The nation’s governors are meeting in Boston this week. At the top of the agenda: how to bridge the states’ $112 billion in expected budget shortfalls for next year.
In particular, states’ want to ensure another injection of federal “stimulus” money to help cover another round of Medicaid shortfalls,
But while 47 governors sent Congress a letter requesting these additional funds, if is far from certain they will receive the money.
Yesterday the two co-chairs of President Obama’s Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, told the governors the feds just can’t afford to send more money to the state capitals. Bowles said, “I don’t think we can count on the federal government again …They just do not have the financial resources.” He said any state waiting for Congress would “be left with a very large hole to fill.”
Simpson put an even finer point on his warning that states shouldn’t depend on another federal government bailout. “The pig is dead … There’s no more bacon,” he said.
Tags: Alan Simpson, deficit commission, Erskine Bowles, Government Spending, National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility & Reform, national governors association, National Governors Association Conference, NGA, state budgets, state spending, stimulus spending
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Wednesday, July 7th, 2010
SEN. JUDD GREGG (R-NH)
Member
Sen. Judd Gregg, a Republican from New Hampshire, was elected to the Senate in 1992. Sen. Gregg is a member of four very powerful committees: Budget — where he is the Republican Ranking Member opposite Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND); Appropriations; Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs; and Health, Education, Labor & Pensions.
On the same day Gregg famously withdrew his name from nomination to be President Barack Obama’s Commerce Secretary, Gregg also announced he would retire after his current Senate term, which ends this year.
The fiscal commission was borne out of a proposal by Sen. Gregg and Senator Conrad. Under the Conrad-Gregg proposal the House and Senate would have been forced to vote on the commission’s recommendations. In the end, Senate leadership agreed to a commission created by executive order by President Obama – the commission would not have the power to compel Congress to vote on its recommendations. On Jan. 28, both Senators Gregg and Conrad voted against an amendment by Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) that would have reflected the original, stronger, proposal.
According to Congressional Quarterly (password required), it was Sen. Gregg’s idea to require a majority of each party to agree on the commission’s recommendations. The commission, as outlined by the White House, requires 14 of the commission’s 18 members to agree on its recommendations.
On Fox News in February, Sen. Gregg warned: “[W]e need to address our deficits, we need to address our debt….I see that as probably the biggest threat we have as a nation, outside of a terrorist using a weapon of mass destruction against us — our impending fiscal bankruptcy.”
Tags: bankrupting america, deficit commission, deficits, Government Spending, Judd Gregg, Just the Facts, National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility & Reform
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Monday, July 5th, 2010
SEN. KENT CONRAD (D-ND)
Member
Sen. Kent Conrad was elected to the Senate in 1986. He currently serves as chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. His other committee assignments include the Senate Finance Committee and on the Joint Committee on Taxation.
The fiscal commission was borne out of a proposal by Chairman Conrad and his colleague, Senate Budget Committee Ranking Republican Judd Gregg (NH). Under the Conrad-Gregg proposal the House and Senate would have been required to vote on the commission’s recommendations. In the end, Senate leadership agreed to a weaker commission created by executive order by President Obama, which would not require - Congress to vote on the commission’s recommendations.
On Jan. 28, Sen. Conrad voted against an amendment by Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) that would have reflected the Conrad/ Gregg original proposal.
Sen. Conrad has long warned that country’s current fiscal path will lead to dire consequences. In May he told an audience hosted by Third Way, “[I]t is as clear as anything could be that a failure to take on this debt means a lower standard of living for the American people in the future, lower rates of economic growth, lower economic opportunity for all of our people — for all of our people.”
But while the Senator told Third Way “everything is on the table” as far as the commission is concerned, it’s notable the senator voted against an amendment to the fiscal year 2010 budget that would have restricted non-defense discretionary spending growth to one percent.
Tags: deficit commission, fiscal commission, Just the Facts, Kent Conrad, National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility & Reform, senate budget committee
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