That’s the amount of deficit reduction projected over 10 years under a new proposal from Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson. Bowles and Simpson, who led President Barack Obama’s 2010 deficit commission, introduced a plan yesterday that would achieve savings in...
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Senior citizens protest against cuts to federal safety net programs, including Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid in Chicago.
Bloomberg by the Numbers: $2.4 Trillion
Gangnam of One? Simpson’s Advice
Alan Simpson is not only co-chairman of a presidential fiscal commission whose leaders offered a way out of the nation’s deficit. He’s also, along with fellow co-chairman Erskine Bowles, a member of the board of TheCanKicksBack, a nonprofit group promoting...
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Photograph by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Erskine Bowles, co-chairman of President Obama's deficit commission, right, and Alan Simpson, fellow co-chairman of the deficit commission, pose for a portrait at the Russell Senate office building in Washington.
Simpson, Bowles Divided on One Issue
For nearly three years Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles have been joined at the hip. Simpson the Republican, former Wyoming Senator with the sharp wit, and Bowles the Democrat, former Clinton chief of staff with the investment banker pedigree, formed...
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Photograph by Norm Betts/Bloomberg
Lloyd C. Blankfein says he would be willing to pay higher taxes if he felt the increase was part of a solution aimed at helping reduce the national debt.
Blankfein: Tax Me, If It Will Help
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer Lloyd C. Blankfein says he would be willing to pay higher taxes if he felt the increase was part of an overall solution aimed at helping reduce the national debt. “No one is...
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Photograph by Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/MCT/Getty Images
Rep. Paul Ryan during a rally at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida, on September 22, 2012.
Ryan: Romney Offering `Clear Choice’
Rep. Paul Ryan, who served on the Simpson-Bowles commission and voted against the chairmen’s plan for addressing the deficit, says he’d oppose it again today. The reason, he says, is it didn’t include reforms in health-care entitlement spending. “I want...
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Photograph by Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
Senator John McCain during the Republican National Convention.
Simpson-Bowles Outline for Budget Deal, McCain Says
Senator John McCain is throwing his weight behind Simpson-Bowles. To avoid the looming fiscal cliff, Congress should consider the bipartisan debt commission’s budget proposal as “a broad outline for a solution,” the Arizona Republican says. “Everybody knows what the solution...
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President Barack Obama in Arlington, Virginia.
Obama’s Book Explanation Doesn’t Reflect Plan
President Barack Obama misrepresented the majority recommendation of the bipartisan deficit commission he appointed in an interview the president gave to journalist Bob Woodward for a book released today. Obama is quoted in “The Price of Politics” telling the famed...
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Attendees sit under the National Debt Clock at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Tampa.
$16 Trillion Debt `Grim Landmark’ — Republicans say as Democrats Open
At the Republican National Convention in Tampa last week, digital debt clocks hanging above the convention floor alerted delegates to the rising toll of the accrued federal debt: Approaching $16 trillion as Mitt Romney accepted his party’s nomination for president....
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Photograph by J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan puts up a chart as he gives the GOP response to President Obama's budget submission for Fiscal Year 2012.
Ryan Nixed Debt Deal Romney Touts
Representative Paul Ryan was a pivotal figure in killing the 2010 Bowles-Simpson agreement, which Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney now holds out as a model for putting America’s fiscal house in order. The 18-member panel needed 14 votes to send a 10-year plan to...
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Photograph by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
David Cote, chief executive officer of Honeywell International Inc., right, talks to Alan Simpson, co-chairman of President Obama's deficit commission, left, and Erskine Bowles, fellow co-chairman of the deficit commission, in Washington.
Romney Touts Simpson-Bowles — Doesn’t Totally Mean It
Republican Mitt Romney has talked before, as he did this week, about Simpson and Bowles. They were the co-chairmen of the deficit commission that President Barack Obama appointed, the co-chairmen who issued their own set of recommendations for lack of...
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Al Hunt
is a columnist for Bloomberg View and host of the weekly show "Political Capital with Al Hunt" on Bloomberg TV. -
Mark Silva
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Richard Rubin
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Cary O'Reilly
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