House rejects Bowles-Simpson, Obama budgets
The Bowles-Simpson
deficit-reduction plan went down to a crushing defeat in the House late
Wednesday night in a vote that damages the one bipartisan proposal that
just a few months ago had seemed like a possible solution to the
country’s debt woes.
The 382-38 defeat, with just 16 Republicans
and 22 Democrats voting for it, marks a bad end to what began nearly two
years ago, when President Obama tapped former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles, a Democrat, and former Sen. Alan Simpson, a Republican, to lead a deficit-reduction committee.
Their
report has popped up in every deficit discussion since then, but had
never gotten a vote in either chamber until this week, when opponents
prevailed.
“This doesn’t go big. This doesn’t tackle the problem. This doesn’t do the big things,” said Rep. Paul D. Ryan, Wisconsin Republican and chairman of the Budget Committee. “You can never get the debt under control if you don’t deal with our health care entitlement programs.”
The debate came as the House worked its way through its fiscal year 2013 budget plan, which Mr. Ryan wrote.
The Bowles-Simpson plan was offered as an alternative on the chamber floor.
The Bowles-Simpson plan was offered as an alternative on the chamber floor.
Minutes
earlier, the House also defeated Mr. Obama’s own budget, submitted last
month, on a 414-0 vote arranged by Republicans to embarrass the
president and officially shelve his plan.
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