Deficit Commission Executive Order
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
Executive Order -- National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Establishment. There is established within the Executive Office of the President the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (Commission).
Sec. 2. Membership. The Commission shall be composed of 18 members who shall be selected as follows:
(a) six members appointed by the President, not more than four of whom shall be from the same political party;
(b) three members selected by the Majority Leader of the Senate, all of whom shall be current Members of the Senate;
(c) three members selected by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, all of whom shall be current Members of the House of Representatives;
(d) three members selected by the Minority Leader of the Senate, all of whom shall be current Members of the Senate; and
(e) three members selected by the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, all of whom shall be current Members of the House of Representatives.
Sec. 3. Co-Chairs. From among his appointees, the President shall designate two members, who shall not be of the same political party, to serve as Co-Chairs of the Commission.
Sec. 4. Mission. The Commission is charged with identifying policies to improve the fiscal situation in the medium term and to achieve fiscal sustainability over the long run. Specifically, the Commission shall propose recommendations designed to balance the budget, excluding interest payments on the debt, by 2015. This result is projected to stabilize the debt-to-GDP ratio at an acceptable level once the economy recovers. The magnitude and timing of the policy measures necessary to achieve this goal are subject to considerable uncertainty and will depend on the evolution of the economy. In addition, the Commission shall propose recommendations that meaningfully improve the long-run fiscal outlook, including changes to address the growth of entitlement spending and the gap between the projected revenues and expenditures of the Federal Government.
Sec. 5. Reports.
(a) No later than December 1, 2010, the Commission shall vote on the approval of a final report containing a set of recommendations to achieve the mission set forth in section 4 of this order.
(b) The issuance of a final report of the Commission shall require the approval of not less than 14 of the 18 members of the Commission.
Sec. 6. Administration.
(a) Members of the Commission shall serve without any additional compensation, but shall be allowed travel expenses, including per diem in lieu of subsistence, as authorized by law for persons serving intermittently in Government service (5 U.S.C. 5701-5707), consistent with the availability of funds.
(b) The Commission shall have a staff headed by an Executive Director.
Sec. 7. General.
(a) The Commission shall terminate 30 days after submitting its final report.
(b) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) authority granted by law to an executive department, agency, or the head thereof; or
(ii) functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
BARACK OBAMA
THE WHITE HOUSE,
February 18, 2010.
Absolute nonsense, just
Absolute nonsense, just submit a smaller budget and use the veto.
The politics...
... is pretty obvious:
What he's hoping for is to be able to raise taxes while saying...
"I didn't raise taxes on all of you earning less than $250,000, the Commission did it!"
(To those who say the 1983 SS Commission accomplished nothing, I suggest that Obama would consider this accomplishment something.)
Short of that, naming an important Commission expresses "concern" about the deficit. He certainly wants to do that by November. Doing that while not doing anything about the deficit is surely a lot better than not doing it while not doing anything about the deficit.
Absolute nonsense, just submit a smaller budget and use the veto
You see evidence somewhere of any desire for a smaller budget? Lower spending?
The last I looked he was taking "temporary stimulus" items and pushing them into the new permanent budget baseline to the tune of $266 billion.
I read that as a notable indicator of lack of any actual desire for spending restraint -- or for that matter, deficit control.
Which means the Commission is political cover to raise taxes, or just typical faux posing with an election approaching.
Which is what the Republicans should treat it as.
@Mike and Jim: As Bruce has
@Mike and Jim: As Bruce has repeatedly explained, you can't fix the deficit by submitting a smaller budget. Mandatory spending (i.e. spending which Congress doesn't determine annually and which the President cannot veto) is the primary source of long-run deficits, projected by. The only way to balance the budget is to severely cut or eliminate these, and even that won't work in any reasonable amount of time.
Rep. Ryan released his "roadmap" which would cut Medicare benefits by 75% and eliminate Social Security benefits, while still charging the 12.4% payroll taxes for them. The proposal also involved a non-defense discretionary spending freeze. But even this wouldn't balance the budget for 70 years. Thus, even the most extremist proposals would require raising taxes if we want to balance the budget in our lifetimes.
Of course, this isn't a new problem. It's been a concern for a decades. It's just commonly discussed now because...actually I don't know why. We're not in a worse situation now than we were five years ago, so the fact that it's getting so much play in the mainstream media is quite puzzling.
Anyone notice the language in
Anyone notice the language in the executive order?
"In addition, the Commission shall propose recommendations that meaningfully improve the long-run fiscal outlook, including changes to address the growth of entitlement spending and the gap between the projected revenues and expenditures of the Federal Government."
This sounds like something that would come out of a Republican administration. The language specifically tells the Commission to propose a plan that cuts Medicare and Social Security spending!