The Fiscal Times
I started saying exactly a year ago that a deficit reduction commission was highly unlikely to be successful, so this quote from a story today in The Fiscal Times anything but a shock:
But whether the rise of the Tea Party and voter repudiation of congressional Democrats will be enough to jolt President Obama’s bipartisan fiscal commission into action remains much in doubt. On Tuesday, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., offered a tepid prognosis of the chances the 18-member commission will deliver a package of spending savings and revenue raisers by Dec.
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Over at Capital Exchange, the blog part of The Fiscal Times, long-time budget reporter and watcher George Hager (and good friend) says that my judgment about the dismal prospects for the presidential deficit commission should not be taken as gospel because events could make success possible.
George says two things are needed for deficit reduction to be come a reality: the deficit has to be seen as both "embarrassing" and "dire." Only then, he says will the other conditions -- a president willing to give up on a key pledge and an opposition party willing to compromise -- be possible.
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My column from yesterday's The Fiscal Times shows what's ahead when the spending reductions begin.
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