Another reasonable dem
Former President Bill Clinton's onetime chief of staff, Erskine Bowles, has nice things to say about GOP vice-presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan.
And some less-than-complimentary observations about his own party's standard-bearer, President Obama.
No wonder Manhattan Rep. Jerrold Nadler has asked the Commission on Presidential Debates not to allow any questions about the national deficit panel that Bowles co-chaired.
The one appointed by Obama, that is.
In a 2011 video that went viral shortly after Ryan was selected, Bowles is seen calling Ryan "amazing."
"He is honest, he is straightforward, he is sincere," Bowles told a crowd at the University of North Carolina.
"And the budget that he came forward with" — the one that's been demonized by Democrats — "is just like Paul Ryan. It is a sensible, straightforward, honest, serious budget, and it cut the budget deficit just like we did, by $4 trillion."
The "we" he's referring to is the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, created by Obama in 2010 and co-chaired by Bowles and former GOP Sen. Alan Simpson.
That panel came up with a bold, deficit-cutting blueprint that called for major spending cuts and entitlement reform.
So why didn't the plan take hold?
"I'll just tell you the truth," Bowles said.
Noting that the Simpson-Bowles plan "not only met the criteria [Obama] outlines but exceeded it in many ways," Bowles said he "expected him to, you know, grab hold of it and say, 'Wow — this is great.' "
But Obama essentially ran away from Simpson-Bowles, with its prescription for shared sacrifice.
Added Bowles: "The president came out with his own plan and . . . a budget, and I don't think anybody took that budget seriously. The Senate voted against it, 97-0."
Under pressure "from folks like me," Obama proposed a $4 trillion cut — but his plan, said Bowles, "was very heavily backloaded . . . Apples to apples, it was really [only] about a $2.5 trillion cut."
That's one reason why four senators — a Democrat, an independent and two Republicans — urged the debate commission to ask the candidates which Simpson-Bowles recommendations, if any, they would adopt.
In response came the letter from terminally clueless Nadler and two Democratic colleagues saying that such a question would only "cheapen the debate."
Not to mention embarrass their party.
And their candidate.
Who's really serious about confronting America's long-term fiscal problem?
Erskine Bowles knows.
Sent from my iPad
No comments:
Post a Comment