The deficit panel's 'painful' $200 billion cuts: Too extreme?

The leaders of the presidential debt-reduction panel propose slashing everything from military spending to Social Security benefits

How can we trim the deficit?
(Image credit: Corbis)

The chairmen of President Obama's bipartisan deficit commission unveiled their proposal to make "painful" spending cuts and eliminate $100 billion in tax breaks, triggering what Republicans and Democrats alike say is an overdue debate on balancing the federal budget. The draft from former Clinton White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles and former senator Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyo.) faced immediate criticism: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called it "simply unacceptable," and several of the commission's 18 members promised big changes before they issue a final report on Dec. 1. Did Bowles and Simpson go too far, or not far enough? (Watch a Fox News discussion about the recommendations)

They are right — cutting the national debt will hurt: Bowles and Simpson have done the nation a favor, say the editors of The Washington Post, by laying out "in chastening detail precisely how deep and widespread the pain will have to be to get the nation's finances on a sustainable path." Their plan would cut nearly $4 trillion from the deficit by 2020, but only after cutting sacred cows, from military spending to Social Security to the "immensely popular tax breaks for mortgage interest." Fixing our finances requires an "adult conversation," and this is a start.

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