WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s new deficit commission might give Americans a slap in the face about the sacrifices needed to avoid bankrupting future generations — maybe working until age 70, paying higher taxes and spending more of their own money for doctors’ visits and prescriptions.
Obama won’t be talking about that harsh medicine, nor will the lawmakers in Congress, nor the candidates trying to replace them in November.
That’s where Obama’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform — created Thursday with fanfare — comes in. With the total federal debt next year expected to exceed $14 trillion — about $47,000 for every U.S. resident — the 18-member commission is charged with coming up with a plan by Dec. 1 to reduce the government’s annual deficits to 3 percent of the national economy by 2015.
Obama announced the panel only after the Senate rejected a call by Sens. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., and Judd Gregg, R-N.H., to create by law a similar group but whose recommendations would have had considerably more weight — requiring Congress to take action accepting or rejecting them. The Associated Press
