NASUAD's Analysis of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform
December 8, 2010
On November 10, 2010, Republican Alan Simpson, a former Wyoming Senator, and Democrat Erskine Bowles, a former chief of staff to President Clinton, the co-chairs of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, released their preliminary recommendations for achieving fiscal sustainability and balancing the budget by 2015 in their ‘Chairmen’s Mark,’ a draft proposal that was intended as a framework on which to build the final report. The Commission was scheduled to release and vote on a final set of recommendations no later than December 1, 2010, with approval of the report by least 14 of the group’s 18 members needed to send the recommendations to votes in the House and Senate. On December 1, 2010, the Commission released its final report and scheduled a full Commission vote for Friday, December 3. The final report, also compiled by Bowles and Simpson, reflected some of the changes suggested by various Commission and Congressional members, but did not change substantially from the Chairmen’s Mark. Though the proposal did not reach the 14-vote threshold, significantly, a majority of the Commission’s members, 11, did endorse the proposal, and leaders from both parties have indicated that they will incorporate some of the Commission’s recommendations in budget, spending and tax decisions in the coming year.
In their final report, “The Moment of Truth,” the Commission makes six basic recommendations to achieve long-term fiscal sustainability, including (1) enacting discretionary spending cuts, (2) reforming the tax system, (3) controlling health care cost growth, (4) mandatory savings, (5) ensuring Social Security solvency while reducing poverty among older Americans, and (6) reforming the budget process to achieve stability.