Obama Will Create His Own Deficit Panel

In his State of the Union address tonight, Barack Obama will announce the creation of a panel to devise recommendations for reducing the national debt—a day after a proposal for a similar commission failed in the Senate. But Obama’s version will be established by executive order, and, unlike the Senate version, it won’t have the power to force congressional votes on its proposals, the New York Times reports.

The Senate proposal for a bipartisan commission won 53 votes, seven short of what it needed to break a filibuster. Republicans rejected it for fear of raising taxes; Democrats because it might call for deep Medicare and Medicaid cuts. The vote came just after yet another dire Congressional Budget Office report, which projected a $1.3 trillion deficit for the year—albeit a slight improvement over last year—and a dire long-term debt outlook. (More Congressional Budget Office stories.)