Simpson, Bowles to offer new $2.4 trillion deficit-reduction

[J.K. Gregg]

[The dane]

Not a lot of specifics in there, so hard to say if I support it or not.

"We must ensure that our nation has a robust, affordable, fair, and sustainable safety net. Benefits should be focused on those who need them the most, and low-income programs should not be cut simply for the sake of deficit reduction" Probably means they want to make the eligibility rules for various welfare programs more strict. Could be either good or bad depending on how it's done.

"We need to modernize our tax and entitlement programs to account for this demographic shift and encourage work and savings" sounds like they want to increase the retirement age, which absolutely should be done, but has no chance whatsoever of becoming legislation right now.

"In the long-term, these reforms should be backed up by a cap on the budgetary commitment to health care, limiting per capita growth close to the growth of the economy" This is basically Paul Ryan's plan, and it's a terrible idea. All it does is shift the costs onto seniors.

"Once policymakers enact a comprehensive deficit reduction plan that keeps the debt on a clear downward trajectory – and continues to do so – they should index the debt limit in order to avoid the need for future political fights over raising it" Good idea, though I'd prefer to go one step further and just abolish the nonsensical debt limit completely.

[J.K. Gregg]

Yeah, some of the details are pretty vague. I'm having a helluva time trying to find the full report (the new one, that is). Journalism is dead.

[eynon81]

2.4 trillion is projected savings too, meaning it's probably not that accurate...oh and expenditures are expected to go up over the next 10 years because of the elderly.

it's interesting that we can't find a reasonable way to balance the budget anymore.

[The Dude]

[sam_i_am]

GOOD NEWS!!!

debt projected to grow by LESS THAN $1 trillion this year.

[The Dude]

and yet to this day no one actually knows why debt matters to a sovereign currency producer.

[eynon81]

[Mo~]

[Davethulhu]