Members of the bipartisan deficit "super committee" are on edge as President Obama
calls for Congress to pass his $447 billion jobs plan, fretting that
the stimulus-style proposal makes their task that much harder.
The president, who is sending his plan to Congress Monday evening, claims the bill will not add to the deficit. The White House says that over the next two weeks, Obama will spell out exactly how he intends to pay for the proposals, and then some.
But the task of offsetting the cost of the
bill will ultimately fall to the bipartisan committee. That committee
already is charged with finding about $1.5 trillion in deficit savings
by Thanksgiving -- Obama's bill brings their target to about $2
trillion. Though the president plans to give the committee a roadmap to
reaching that larger target, Republican members expressed concern that
the latest request will make it much harder to drum up enough avenues
for deficit reduction in a mere two-month timeframe.
"This proposal would make the
already-arduous challenge of finding bipartisan agreement on deficit
reduction nearly impossible, removing our options for deficit reduction
for a plan that won't reduce the deficit by one penny," committee
co-chairman Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, said in a statement.
Obama, outlining how he plans to find
additional savings, pointed to exactly the same targets the super
committee was already looking at. The president mentioned three possible
sources of money-- eliminating or reducing some tax deductions, making
changes in entitlements such as Medicare and Medicaid and making wealthier households pay "their fair share," a reference to tax increases. - FOX News
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