Bowles, Simpson Warning: Deficit Committee Must Cut More Than $1.2 Trillion

The two co-chairmen of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, warned lawmakers on Tuesday that any deal to reduce the federal budget deficit by no more than $1.2 trillion would “merely delay” the nation’s fiscal problems.

In testimony before the bipartisan Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, Bowles and Simpson said that it was “supremely important that the committee succeed” in reaching an agreement by its Nov. 23 deadline, not only for the sake of the economy but also because a failure to reach a deal “might result in another downgrade” of the nation’s credit rating.

“At best, a failure would shake public confidence,” the two said in their joint testimony. The committee, they said, “should work to reach agreement on as many specific options for savings as possible” within the next 23 days.

Bowles and Simpson said that both spending cuts and increased federal revenues must be on the table in order to reach any meaningful solution.

Said Bowles: “I’m worried [this commission] is going to fail the country…. We face the most predictable economic crisis in history, the economic path we are on is not sustainable.” The big problems for the deficit, Bowles said, come from four sources: healthcare; too much spending on defense; the nation’s tax system is ineffective and inefficient; and the interest on the nation’s debt.

However, coming to a consensus is likely going to be a challenge, as William Sweetnam, co-chairman of Groom Law Group’s policy and legislation group, and the former benefits tax counsel in the Office of the Tax Policy at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, told AdvisorOne on Tuesday that committee members are still “stuck in a lot of areas.”