Simpson-Bowles in the Senate

Ezra Klein’s take is about right. It is very possible behind the scenes people feel differently, but before the election given what has transpired, it just seems impossible for any bipartisan budget absent an economic calamity. An obvious strategy is to let Taxmageddon go off, and then passing something like Simpson-Bowles (or just about anything else) in Jan. 2013 could be declared to be a tax cut…..it just depends on the baseline used to keep track.

One key point is Sen. Session’s criticizing Sen. Conrad’s Chairman’s mark as raising more in taxes than the House version of Simpson-Bowles. That is true, but mostly because they Cooper-LaTourette, which was labelled Simpson-Bowles, really was not, and raised far less revenue.

I am left wondering what might be different if President Obama would have embraced Simpson-Bowles immediately when released in Decmeber 2010, and put that forward as his next budget? Many Liberals and Progressives hated it, especially the Social Security aspects (my least favorite part of the plan at first glance; and after more consideration). I understand the argument that the most likely outcome of President Obama embracing this in his budget would have been a Republican move to redefine the plan as the new practical definition of socialism, etc. However, I don’t think that charge would hold up over time. And it is also the case that the initial Simpson-Bowles plan is the MOST LIBERAL plan put forth that had any modicum of bipartisan support in the sense of raising taxes; (this rightward drift viz. tax increases v. budget cuts of all the plans can be seen in the House v. the Senate versions of “Simpson-Bowles”). Further, Simpson-Bowles quite clearly assumed the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and moved on to the next steps; this would have been a powerful rhetorical argument in the health reform wars of the 16 months since the report was issued, had the President embraced Simpson-Bowles as the hard medicine the country needed.

This doesn’t mean I don’t support the President, I do. My take simply flows out of my belief that Progressives and Liberals need a sustainable federal budget more than Conservatives do, given our view of the role of government in society. My thoughts are more fully fleshed out on this in my e book on the subject; a fuller version will come out in May 2012 published by Springer (Balancing the Budget is a Progressive Priority).