Deficit Commission Votes 11-7 for Spending Cuts, Tax Changes

President Obama's bipartisan debt commission voted 11-7 Friday to approve a controversial plan to shave deficits by nearly $4 trillion over the next decade. That fell short of the 14 votes that would formalize its recommendations and send them to the House and Senate floors for an up or down vote. But Democrats and Republicans alike said there is substantial support for much of the plan and that it will lead to a solution to the nation's crushing debt.

The package would overhaul the tax code, reducing both tax rates and tax breaks. It would cut back spending on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the military and many other domestic programs.

Despite the bipartisan praise, from both supporters and opponents of the plan, the final breakdown underscored the partisan nature of the House as compared to the Senate. Three House Republicans -- Paul Ryan, Dave Camp and Jeb Hensarling -- voted no, as did House Democrats Jan Schakowsky and Xavier Becerra. Sen. Max Baucus and former union leader Andy Stern also voted no.

Those endorsing the plan were commission co-chairs Erskine Bowles (former White House chief of staff to Bill Clinton) and former Wyoming senator Alan Simpson, Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin and Kent Conrad, Republican Sens. Tom Coburn, Judd Gregg and Mike Crapo, Democratic Rep. John Spratt, Democrat Alice Rivlin (former director of the Office of Management and Budget) and two members from the business community: David Cote (chairman and CEO of Honeywell International) and Ann Fudge (former CEO of Young & Rubicam Brands).

Cote also noticed the vote pattern and said it recalled the maxim that "the hot tea of the House cools in the saucer of the Senate." He said that "nobody's happy" but asked people to "please don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good." Rivlin said journalists have been relentlessly skeptical about the prospects for the plan and asked them to "lay off and give it a chance."

Durbin called the package "a historic document" and, using Senate parlance, said he was voting yes not on final passage but on a motion to proceed with discussion. "I want progressive voices at the table to argue that we must protect the most vulnerable in our society and demanding fairness in budget cuts. Today with my vote I'm claiming a seat at the table," he said.

Conrad, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said the package had cleared an important hurdle by Senate standards -- it garnered more than 60 percent of the vote. It was a reference to the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster in the 100-member chamber. Stern said the plan deserves a vote and if it doesn't succeed, Congress should consider other plans, including one that he has drawn up and another he hopes will be forthcoming from Obama. "We should just keep voting until we get this job done," he said. "This is the issue of our times that must be solved."

Obama, who was in Afghanistan visiting U.S. troops, issued a statement saying the commission had successfully highlighted "the magnitude of the challenge before us" and come up with ways to meet it. He said the entire panel has been invited to meet with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and OMB director Jacob Lew to discuss its proposals.

There was no immediate commitment from the president. He said only that "my goal is to build on the steps we've already taken to reduce our deficit, like slowing the growth of health care costs, proposing a three-year freeze in non-security discretionary spending and a two-year pay freeze for federal civilian workers, and restoring the rule that we pay for all of our priorities."

Bowles said the commission's work proves that "our nation understands the peril of our ever increasing deficits and that our leaders . . . are prepared to do something real, something important to address them." He said he is gratified that Ryan and Camp plan to put 85 percent of the commission package into their budget next year, despite voting no on it. Camp will be chairman of the Ways and Means Committee when the GOP takes over the House next year; Ryan will be in charge of the House Budget Committee.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had agreed to bring the package to a vote on the House and Senate floors if it drew support from 14 commission members. AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka said Friday that "thankfully," the "job-killing report" fell short and will not be sent to Congress for immediate action. He called its recommendations out of touch with "the everyday reality of working Americans" and said true courage would be to make the wealthy pay their "fair share" to restore fiscal balance.

Ryan said Thursday that he likes many elements of the plan, including its budget and tax reforms. But he said opposed it largely because of its health care component. He wants to repeal the new health law and he says the plan would instead expand and entrench it. That will make the fiscal situation worse, Ryan said at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast. Asked why he couldn't approve the package as a first step, he replied, "It goes backwards."

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