Senator Kent Conrad, Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, has proposed a 2013 Budget Resolution that backs $5.4 trillion in cuts over 10 years, based on the recommendations of the Bowles-Simpson Commission.
WASHINGTON, DC
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
On Wednesday, the Senate Budget Committee held a hearing to consider Chairman Kent Conrad’s 2013 budget resolution. The proposal is based on the Bowles-Simpson plan and includes $5.4 trillion in deficit reduction over 10 years. The chairman says it is a plan that “represents the best blueprint from which to build a bipartisan deficit reduction agreement” but also recognizes that the proposal “is not perfect and adjustments will have to be made.”
There are some top rated diaries right now suggesting it is only Republicans that have backed austerity measures. A short trip down memory lane is an easy reminder that President Obama himself had put austerity on the table just last year:
Today, I’m proposing a more balanced approach to achieve $4 trillion in deficit reduction over twelve years. It’s an approach that borrows from the recommendations of the bipartisan Fiscal Commission I appointed last year, and builds on the roughly $1 trillion in deficit reduction I already proposed in my 2012 budget. It’s an approach that puts every kind of spending on the table, but one that protects the middle-class, our promise to seniors, and our investments in the future.
Obama had his austerity, Grand Bargain on the table well before the election. Conrad lays his cards down: I'll take your $4 trillion and raise you $1.4 trillion in 12 years.
And...Conrad is willing to wait until after the election to bamboozle democrats.