WASHINGTON — The co-chairmen of President Barack Obama’s deficit commission are sticking with politically explosive proposals to raise the Social Security retirement age and curb benefit increases in a revised plan to get the deficit under control.
The new plan by Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, to be publicly unveiled today, faces an uphill slog because of proposals to curb Social Security and Medicare costs, curtail a huge assortment of tax breaks like the deduction for mortgage interest and almost double the tax on a gallon of gas.
Though the ban appears unlikely to win enough bipartisan support from the panel to be approved, Bowles declared victory Tuesday, saying he and Simpson have at least succeeded in initiating an “adult conversation” about the political pain it will take to cut the deficit.
Bowles acknowledged the plan faces resistance from the 18 deficit commission members. Obama named the commission in hopes of bringing a deficit-fighting plan up for a vote in Congress this year, but it appears to be falling well short of the 14-vote bipartisan supermajority needed.
A new version of the plan, obtained by The Associated Press, makes mostly minor changes to a draft that whipped up enormous controversy when unveiled last month.
The Associated Press
