Obama's twin fiscal headaches: The debt and deficit
USA Today
Jan. 25, 2010
"That became clear Monday when the Bipartisan Policy Center -- named for a quality Congress lacks these days -- announced it would spend the year coming up with a specific package of tax increases and spending cuts needed to reduce red ink.
"With the national debt above $12 trillion and the annual deficit at $1.4 trillion, Democrats and Republicans on the center's task force said the country can't wait to see if Democrats and Republicans in Congress devise their own plan. The center hopes to be a stalking horse for deficit reduction, then sell the panoply of pain to the country.
"Heading up the task force: former Republican senator Pete Domenici of New Mexico and former Congressional Budget Office director Alice Rivlin, a Democrat. Calling each other 'Senator Pete' and 'Doctor Alice,' they vowed to make the hard decisions that presidents and Congresses haven't been able to do since the last significant deficit-cutting deal in 1997.
"'We cannot pay for this debt through growth alone,' Domenici said. He vowed that everything would be considered. 'That means taxes are on the table,' he said."
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