Bi-partisan commission on reducing the debt – draft report

With the federal legislative session not exactly in full swing, you have plenty of time to review President Obama’s bi-partisan commission’s “how to reduce the debt” draft report. Unfortunatley, I don’t have time to read much this evening, but I wanted to provide you a link to the PDF for your reading pleasure.

The report – again, just in draft form – is only 24 pages. (I’m using the direct link from the fiscal commissions website.) What we’ll do is add at least one more post as RVO authors review the document. They are pointing out $200 billion in savings for 2015, split equally between domestic and defense spending.

A quick rundown of others writing on the subject this afternoon…

• Big Government
• Americans for Tax Reform (and here too)
• Sweetness & Light
• Powerline
• The Washington Times
• Hot Air

AP at Hot Air points out this is just a trial balloon draft.

Mind you, this “starting point” has arrived some nine months after Obama created the Commission, which he did only after a congressional attempt to create a different deficit commission died in the Senate. As for the specifics of the proposal, Tapper has a full rundown here although I recommend his post mainly for the apocalyptic quotes from hysterical progressives furious at the thought of reforming Social Security or — gasp — reducing the highest income tax brackets, both of which are endorsed by Bowles/Simpson. Sample reaction from Obama pal and AFL-CIO chief Richard Trumka: “The chairmen of the Deficit Commission just told working Americans to ‘Drop Dead.’”

TPM has a useful, detailed bullet-point summary of recommended spending cuts, tax increases, and entitlement reforms, but if you’re only interested in a broad overview, this CNN piece is better.

Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.-Not-Speaker-for-Long) has shot it down, and I guaranty you she has not read it.