Erskine Bowles

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Simpson, Bowles Back With Sequel to Deficit Plan

They want to slash another $2.4T, far exceeding Obama's goals

(Newser) - If you liked the first Simpson-Bowles plan, good news! Washington's favorite bipartisan hypothetical budget slashers have come up with a sequel of sorts, proposing $2.4 trillion in new (and probably politically impossible) deficit cuts over the next decade, Politico reports. How would they get there?
  • They'd slash
...

Alan Simpson: Tax Hikes for Rich, or Drinks on Me
 Alan Simpson: 
 Tax Hikes for Rich, 
 or Drinks on Me 
TALK SHOW ROUNDUP
Dec 9, 2012 12:17 PM CST

Alan Simpson: Tax Hikes for Rich, or Drinks on Me

Erskine Bowles increasingly confident now that parties 'starting to tango'

(Newser) - It's just another Sunday teetering on the fiscal cliff, with the Hill reporting that both Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles are indicating that tax hikes for the rich were a foregone conclusion. “I think Erskine and I both agree that if anybody out there who is, quote, rich...

OK, Obama, Now Can We Get Tough on Wall Street?
OK, Obama, Now Can We
Get Tough on Wall Street?
OPINION
Nov 12, 2012 12:55 PM CST

OK, Obama, Now Can We Get Tough on Wall Street?

His 2nd term is a chance to do it right: William Cohan

(Newser) - Back when President Obama took office in 2009, many assumed he'd reform the Wall Street system that had just blown a hole in the economy. "It turned out we were either naïve or stupid," author William Cohan writes at Bloomberg . Instead, Obama's administration was stocked...

Obama Plans Drastic Cabinet Shake-Up

Clinton, Geithner, Panetta, Holder all could be gone

(Newser) - After a first term almost devoid of Cabinet shakeups, President Obama is now working on plans to replace virtually his entire team. Hillary Clinton and Tim Geithner have both publicly announced their exits, but Leon Panetta, Eric Holder, Ray LaHood, Steven Chu, Ken Salazaar, and Lisa Jackson are all expected...

Geithner: Obama Won't Ask Me to Stay

Treasury secretary says he's done after election

(Newser) - Tim Geithner is pretty sure he's going to be joining the ranks of the jobless after the election: The Treasury secretary—the longest serving member of President Obama's economic team—tells Bloomberg that Obama is "not going to ask me to stay on, I’m pretty confident....

Shutdown Averted, Higher Stakes Loom

Battles brewing over debt ceiling, 2012 budget will be even bigger

(Newser) - If you think the narrowly averted government shutdown over a few billion dollars was bad, wait until you see the multi-trillion-dollar brawls coming in the next few weeks, reports the Wall Street Journal . First up, the government is about to hit its legally imposed $14.294 trillion debt ceiling by...

Cranky Alan Simpson Disses Snoopy Snoopy Poop Dogg

And the enema man, because kids these days...

(Newser) - Alan Simpson, known far and wide for his hysterical and/or inappropriate penchant for speaking bluntly, is still very cranky about the federal deficit, and appeared on Fox News yesterday to do what cranky old people do: Yell at the kids. And the old people, reports Politico . “This is a...

Deficit Gurus: Glass Still 'Half-Full'

Bowles and Simpson see time to improve Obama budget

(Newser) - Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson think that President Obama's proposed budget "goes nowhere close" enough in reducing the US deficit, but the deficit-reduction panel's co-chairs say they "see the cup as half-full." "[We] think there is the real possibility that a bipartisan deficit reduction plan can...

Obama to Budget Critics: Wow, You're Impatient

President also blasts Iran leaders as hypocrites in news conference

(Newser) - Two main themes are emerging from President Obama's news conference this afternoon—he called out Iran over its violent crackdown on protesters and said critics of his budget plan were way too "impatient":
  • On Iran: "I find it ironic that you've got the Iranian regime pretending to celebrate
...

Deficit-Cutting Plan Fails to Advance

But it gets 11 votes, just 3 shy

(Newser) - An austere deficit-cutting plan by President Obama's budget commission has failed to win the supermajority required to force a quick vote in Congress. The plan won support from 11 of 18 commission members, however, more than expected just a few weeks ago. As a result, it could shape the coming...

Deficit Chiefs Unveil Plan, With New Tax Holiday

Plan would raise retirement age, cut tax exemptions

(Newser) - Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles formally unveiled their 59-page plan to cut the deficit yesterday, and it’s much the same as the draft proposal floated a few weeks back. The pair, who co-chair President Obama’s deficit reduction commission, want to raise the Social Security retirement age, cut Medicare,...

Let's Finally Shrink the 'Military Industrial Complex'
Let's Finally Shrink the
'Military Industrial Complex'
eugene robinson
Nov 16, 2010 12:45 PM CST

Let's Finally Shrink the 'Military Industrial Complex'

Eugene Robinson: Budget realities make it essential

(Newser) - Of all the controversial ideas in the Bowles-Simpson deficit-reduction plan, the "most welcome" is the one about slashing defense spending and at long last taming the infamous military industrial complex, writes Eugene Robinson. He lays the blame for out-of-control spending on Republicans, who talk a good game on small...

Deficit Commission Hijacked By the Right
Deficit Commission Hijacked By the Right
Paul Krugman
Nov 12, 2010 12:58 PM CST

Deficit Commission Hijacked By the Right

Krugman: It's yet another soak-the-poor scheme

(Newser) - Paul Krugman had a bad feeling about the president’s deficit commission when co-chair Alan Simpson likened Social Security to “a milk cow with 310 million tits.” The suggestions put forward Wednesday haven’t improved his opinion. Simpson, and Democrat Erskine Bowles, proposed a truly “bipartisan” plan—...

Washington Is Waking Up to Public's Spending Fears
Washington Is Waking Up to Public's Spending Fears
PEGGY NOONAN
Feb 19, 2010 9:33 AM CST

Washington Is Waking Up to Public's Spending Fears

GOP needs to build consensus for cuts—and win back White House

(Newser) - President Obama may be just trying to save his political life with the creation of a bipartisan commission on government spending but the move shows Washington is waking up to the public's worries, writes Peggy Noonan. Concerns about federal spending and its implications for America's future have, just in time,...

Obama Moves Forward on Debt Commission

Names Simpson, Bowles co-chairs in spite of GOP protests

(Newser) - Ignoring GOP resistance, President Obama is moving ahead with plans for a commission to bring down the federal debt. Obama will tomorrow name Clinton White House vet Erskine Bowles and former Republican Senate Whip Alan Simpson to co-chair the panel, which will seek to knock the federal debt down from...

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