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Deficit summit brings about more talk, no answers

May 15, 2012 RSS Feed Print

Nope. The idea of compromise between politicians who just lost an election and those that just won an election didn't get a lot of traction among the panelists.

Ryan, who's hoping Election Day will bring GOP reinforcements beyond the party's beachhead in the House, suggested instead that there would be a short-term patch to buy time for the new Congress and either a re-elected Obama or Republican President Mitt Romney to work out some sort of agreement.

The summit was opened with an appearance by Geithner, who predicted that the ultimate solution would look a lot like the Obama's deficit commission, co-chaired by Simpson. The commission got lots of praise from members of the deficit industrial complex like Peterson for recommendations like raising taxes and boosting the Medicare retirement age, but was mostly shunned as too radioactive by Obama and the Democratic and GOP leadership on Capitol Hill.

The Simpson proposal, in retrospect, looks like a good deal for Obama, since it included $2 trillion in new tax revenues over a decade and shielded the poor from many of its cuts.

Then came Boehner's speech, which promised "broad-based tax reform that lowers rates for individuals and businesses while closing deductions, credits and special carve-outs" but failed to offer up any tax increases along the way.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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