The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform is a commission created in 2010 by President Barack Obama to identify "…policies to improve the fiscal situation in the medium term and to achieve fiscal sustainability over the long run."[1] The commission first met on April 27, 2010.[2]
History
The original proposal for a commission came from bipartisan legislation that would have required Congress to vote on its recommendations as presented, without any amendment. In January 2010, that bill failed in the Senate by a vote of 53-46, when six Republicans who had co-sponsored it nevertheless voted against it.[3] Thereafter, Obama established the Commission by Executive Order 13531. Former Republican Senator Alan Simpson, after his appointment to co-chair the Commission, criticized the former supporters who had voted against the bill, saying that their purpose "was to stick it to the president."[4] In the absence of special legislation, the Commission's proposals are not guaranteed to be considered by Congress in a single up-or-down vote.
Criticism
The commission has been criticized as deliberating in secret and as being "stacked with people who want to target entitlement spending rather than any balanced proposal."[28] Because it could lead to cuts in benefits for Social Security and Medicare, many progressives are calling this a 'cat food' commission,[29] on the grounds that it will allegedly eliminate key portions of the social safety net, forcing some people (particularly the elderly) into such extreme poverty that they will only be able to afford to eat cat food. An early user of the term was the liberal blogger Digby.[30] Commission staffers working for external think tanks has also been an issue.[31] Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington criticizes the deficit report for omitting a tax on the financial industry, as was recommended by the International Monetary Fund.
The final report by the U.S. National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, released this morning, contains a long list of tax increases and spending cuts needed to shrink the federal deficit. And although no sectors of the economy are excluded, the bipartisan presidential panel treats research with kid gloves. Even its proposal to clamp down hard on discretionary spending, the category under which all civilian research is funded, wouldn't necessarily translate into automatic reductions for federally funded science.
The 66-page report, previewed last month by its co-chairs Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, doesn't mention any federal research agency, much less any particular program.
I wish they had gotten to details of specific agencies and programs, but it's a start. I highly recommend reading it and writing to your Congressmen and women about which parts you support and which you do not, and why.
"Now, more than ever, the illusions of division threaten our very existence. We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another as if we were one single tribe.” -King T'Challa, Black Panther
The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it. ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is. ~Winston Churchill
