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At his confirmation hearing Thursday, Secretary of Defense nominee Leon Panetta faced questions from Democrats and Republicans alike about President Barack Obama’s intention, hastily announced in April, to cut $400 billion from national security spending over the next 12 years. Unfortunately, Panetta seemed to have little concrete information about the president’s plans. What Panetta was willing to say, however, was that such defense cuts should not be undertaken lightly. Asked whether he agreed with outgoing Secretary of Defense Robert Gates about their potential impact, Panetta said: “I share his concerns about the possibility of hollowing out our force. I think...

One way to know that President Oba ma's much-hyped "fiscal austerity" speech bombed is that even members of his own deficit-reduction commission apparently felt betrayed. Sure, Erskine Bowles, the commission's Democratic chair, and Alan Simpson, the Republican, made some nice public statement about Obama's deficit-reduction plan after they met with him yesterday -- one day after the president unveiled his scheme to miraculously cut $4 trillion without reining in the looming catastrophes of Medicare and other entitlements. But people I spoke to in corporate America got a more unvarnished reaction in private from the debt-committee chieftains. "What these guys can't...

There is bipartisan agreement across the country that the debt level is out of control. As a result of previous spending and future, unfunded obligations, America faces two outcomes if nothing is done. The first possible outcome is an acute national debt crisis if creditors decide to stop buying our debt. Overnight, government programs could literally come to a screeching halt forcing austerity measures that could spark social unrest and possibly much worse. The second outcome is less drastic but no less worrying, and involves debasing our currency by printing money to pay for spending obligations; destroying existing wealth and...

In a Friday op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, Sarah Palin takes aim at a bipartisan commission's recent recommendations on reducing the deficit, calling its suggestions "a disappointment" and claiming that the plan "implicitly endorses the use of 'death panel'-like rationing." Palin lambastes the panel's consideration of the health care law in its examination, and warns that, "not only does it leave ObamaCare intact," but "its proposals would lead to a public option being introduced by the backdoor."

The U.S. deficit commission received the backing of a majority of its 18-strong panel, but fell short of the 14 votes needed to possibly trigger congressional votes on its recommendations. The panel's final plan would cut around $4 trillion from U.S. budget deficits by 2020 through an ambitious combination of an overhaul of the tax code, spending cuts and changes to the Social Security program. As the commission wrapped up its final meeting, several members urged Congress and President Barack Obama to take up the mantle and take aggressive action to tackle the nation's fiscal woes. The plan "deserves a...

A sweeping proposal aimed at cutting $4 trillion from the budget over the next decade failed to win enough votes Friday to clear the commission President Obama entrusted to solve the nation's daunting fiscal problems. The report from the 18-member deficit commission won the support of 11 members, short of the 14 necessary to be formally adopted. The vote does not preclude Congress from taking up any of the dozens of recommendations on the floor, but it virtually assures the proposals will not be considered as a single package. The final report called for a host of changes to tax...

After months of intense debate, the president's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform has produced a plan to move this country, now lurching toward fiscal disaster, toward firmer economic footing. As a member of this bipartisan commission and co-author of the Conrad-Gregg Bipartisan Fiscal Task Force legislation the panel is based on, I hope this plan will be supported. It should not be viewed as the ultimate solution. But it is a template for governance, something that has been sorely lacking as the country sinks deeper and deeper into debt. For the past century, the United States has been...

ABC News has learned Andrew Stern will vote no on the deficit commission’s plan to reduce the national deficit by nearly $4 trillion. Mr. Stern, the former president of the SEIU, has informed co-chairmen Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson that he will be the fifth member voting no, ending the commission’s hopes of officially passing the plan to Congress. The commission needed votes from 14 of the 18 members in order to pass the plan to Congress. Mr. Stern joins Sen. Max Baucus and Reps. Dave Camp, Paul Ryan and Jan Schakowsky in voting against the plan. He is also...

They need 14 of the 18 members to vote yes tomorrow to send the Bowles/Simpson plan to Congress. Ain’t happening. Guess who provided unlucky no vote number five. ABC News has learned Andrew Stern will vote no on the deficit commission’s plan to reduce the national deficit by nearly $4 trillion. Mr. Stern, the former president of the SEIU, has informed co-chairmen Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson that he will be the fifth member voting no, ending the commission’s hopes of officially passing the plan to Congress. The commission needed votes from 14 of the 18 members in order to...

Republican Sens. Tom Coburn and Mike Crapo, who sit on President Obama's deficit-reduction commission, will vote in favor of the commission's plan, according to sources. They will join Sens. Kent Conrad (D) and Judd Gregg (R), who said yesterday they'd also support the package. Fourteen of the commission's 18 members need to vote yes for the plan to move to Congress. The vote is expected to take place tomorrow. Both senators are voting members of the panel. "I'm scared to death at the potential that could unwind this country," said Coburn, one of the Senate's most fiscal conservative members. Crapo...

Republican Rep. Paul Ryan, an influential member of President Barack Obama’s deficit-reduction panel, says he won’t vote for the panel’s recommendations–but praised the proposed package of cuts and tax reforms as a good start. Speaking to reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast, the future chairman of the House Budget Committee said the bipartisan panel failed to tackle the health-care challenge. “It not only didn’t address the elephant in the room–health care–it expanded it.” But Mr. Ryan did heap praise on the overall package, saying it has advanced discussions and highlighted changes on the taxes and budget front that Republicans...

AOL Opinons editor John Merline notes that the deficit commission titled its proposal “The Moment of Truth,” and perhaps rarely for a government effort, it actually delivers on its advertising. The report exposes six truths about the federal government and its spending addiction. Perhaps even more importantly, it exposes a couple of key myths about the Obama administration and its agenda: 2) Health reform’s cost savings apparently were bogus. Remember how Democrats boasted that health reform would cut the budget deficit by $170 billion over the next decade and far more after that? The deficit commission must not have gotten...

Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson took their case directly to the public today by releasing the final version of the proposal to reduce the spiraling national debt and deficit spending. The strategy looks less like a plan to pressure Congress than to pressure the other members of their commission, however, since none of the 12 current members of Congress on the panel have committed to supporting the proposal. The New York Times reports on the fruits of true bipartisanship (via The Corner): Among the lawmakers, the Republicans generally oppose the chairmenÂ’s draft plan because of its tax increases for upper-income...

President Obama’s deficit commission continues to surprise. On paper, it appears to be failing—it looks increasingly likely that no proposal or idea will get enough members behind it to become an actual official recommendation of the commission. But the members’ efforts to avoid simply admitting defeat have produced some pretty interesting and valuable results. Last week, the co-chairmen released a serious (if of course far from perfect) proposal for deficit and debt reduction. Earlier this week, Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky (a Democrat, and one of the commission’s more liberal members) released her own plan, which mostly revealed a profound lack...

The deficit reduction committee, created by President Obama a few months back to kick the can of his irresponsible overspending down the road a few decades, is out with its trial balloon recommendations for reducing the federal deficit. According to the Wall Street Journal, its ideas include: For businesses, it would lower the corporate tax rate but remove a number of deductions currently available. It would make permanent the research-and-development tax credit. Federal subsidies to agribusinesses would begin to be slashed by $3 billion a year. On Social Security, it would gradually increase the retirement age when people can start...

There are jokes, bad jokes, and deficit commissions. President Obama tackled the job of the federal budget by creating a commission to study it. And now that commission has some answers for us. You will read much about its recommendations to raise the Social Security retirement age, get rid of mortgage interest as a tax deduction, cut the defense budget, etc. But here is all you need to know about the commission and its answers, from The Wall Street Journal. The plan's goal is to reduce federal spending and federal revenues to 21% of gross domestic product. Federal revenues...

We are both pleasantly surprised and modestly encouraged by the program outlined by Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, the co-chairmen of the president’s deficit-reduction task force. There’s no VAT in sight, nor is there unrealistic happy-talk about balancing the budget through a federal Taylorism campaign or symbolic assaults on the unholy trinity of waste, fraud, and abuse. Instead, there is a serious series of concrete proposals for constraining entitlement costs, simplifying the tax code, and putting a leash on future federal expenditures. Whereas the Obama-Reid-Pelosi triumvirate had put the country on the road toward a national debt topping 200 percent...

We’re not serious. Yet. Leaders of President Barack Obama’s bipartisan deficit commission on Wednesday proposed reducing the annual cost-of-living increases in Social Security, part of a bold plan to control $1 trillion-plus budget deficits…As proposed, the plan by Chairman Erskine Bowles and former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-WY) doesn’t look like it can win support from 14 of the commission’s 18 members to force a debate in Congress. Bowles is a Democrat and was former President Bill Clinton’s White House chief of staff.Cuts to Social Security and Medicare are making some liberals on the panel recoil. And conservative Republicans are having...

Want a tax hike that will really hit home … literally? The Hill reported yesterday afternoon that momentum has picked up for capping the mortgage-interest deduction that has incentivized real-estate purchases. It comes as the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform looks at means-testing a number of programs, including Social Security and Medicare: The popular tax break for mortgage interest, once considered untouchable, is falling under the scrutiny of policymakers and economic experts seeking ways to close huge deficits.Although Congress last year rejected the White House’s proposed cut to the amount wealthier taxpayers can deduct for home mortgage interest...

President Obama has today appointed Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President Andy Stern to the federal deficit-reduction commission. And I say, why not? After all union thugs like Stern are one of the root causes of federal deficits so he should know all about them.