Super Committee Dems Propose $3T Debt Deal

It includes big slashes to Medicare
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 26, 2011 1:28 PM CDT
Super Committee Dems Propose $3T Debt Deal
In this Sept. 13, 2011, file photo the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, led by co-chairs Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., meets on Capitol Hill.   (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, file)

Democrats threw a whopper of a deal onto the table in a closed-door super committee meeting yesterday, offering a plan that would slash between $2.5 trillion and $3 trillion from the deficit over the next 10 years, while providing between $200 billion and $300 billion in new stimulus spending, congressional aides tell Reuters. The deficit reductions are split about equally between revenue increases and spending cuts, including roughly $400 billion in Medicare cuts.

It’s the first formal proposal Democrats have offered to the committee, though not all of them seemed sold on it—Jim Clyburn, sources said, has reservations about the Medicare cuts. Republicans reportedly reacted poorly to the plan as well, objecting to both the stimulus spending and the revenue increases. But time to work out these differences is fast slipping away—the committee’s deadline is Nov. 23. (More super committee stories.)

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