–Former Chairmen of Obama’s Deficit Panel Urge Bold Deficit Action
–Ex-Sen. Simpson: Super Committee Has ‘Very, Very Difficult’ Challenge
–Ex-Chief of Staff Bowles To Hill: ‘Go Big and Go Bold’
–House Majority Leader Cantor Says Panel Should Focus On $1.5T Goal

By John Shaw

WASHINGTON (MNI) – Former Senator Alan Simpson and former White
House chief of staff Erskine Bowles, the co-chairmen of President
Obama’s commission on fiscal responsibility, Monday urged Congress’s
deficit reduction panel to craft a deficit reduction package that is
much larger than its goal of $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction.

Speaking at a budget briefing, Simpson and Bowles said the nation’s
deficit problems are severe and require a bolder policy response than
the panel’s mandate. They said the congressional panel should secure at
least $4 trillion in deficit reduction over a decade.

“It is going to be very, very difficult,” Simpson said, referring
to the work of the so-called Super Committee.

Simpson said securing budget savings of between $1.2 trillion and
$1.5 trillion, as is the panel’s mandate, is not enough to fix the
nation’s fiscal problems.

“They are going to have to go for more than that,” Simpson said.

“The heat is one,” Simpson said.

Bowles said he has a simple admonishment for the congressional
committee: “Go big and be bold.”

He said a $4 trillion deficit reduction plan is the minimal amount
that needs to be done to stabilize the nation’s debt.

Bowles said he is “encouraged” that the U.S.’s political climate is
more conducive to ambitious deficit reduction.

At a briefing earlier in the day, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor
urged the congressional panel to focus on its $1.5 trillion deficit
cutting goal, saying that will be difficult enough.

Congress’s Select Committee on Deficit Reduction will hold a
hearing Tuesday to discuss the “drivers” of the U.S.’s growing deficits
and debt. Congressional Budget Office director Doug Elmendorf will
testify Tuesday at 10:30 p.m.

The congressional panel, officially called the Joint Select
Committee on Deficit Reduction, is charged to submit a report to
Congress by Nov. 23, 2011 that reduces the deficit by $1.5 trillion
between 2012 and 2021.

The final package, if one is agreed to by the majority of the
panel’s 12 members, must be voted on without amendment by the House and
Senate by Dec. 23, 2011.

If the panel fails to agree on a spending cut package, a budget
enforcement trigger would secure $1.2 trillion in budget savings through
across-the-board cuts.

The cuts would be equally divided between defense and non-defense
programs but would exempt Social Security, Medicaid and low-income
programs.

** Market News International Washington Bureau: (202) 371-2121 **

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