Deficit commission co-chair Erskine Bowles echoed his former boss in a press conference Tuesday afternoon, declaring: “The era of deficit denial in Washington is over.”
Bowles and his fellow co-chair, former senator Alan Simpson, praised the commission’s hard work and announced that the final report will meet its Dec. 1 deadline. Commission members will receive copies of the plan later this evening before it is released to the public tomorrow morning. In order to give members time to review the plan, the co-chairs said they will wait until Friday to vote on it. “We’ll meet tomorrow, we’ll discuss the plan, and we’ll ask for their decisions by Friday,” Bowles said. “Some will indicate tomorrow where they stand.”
The plan needs the backing of at least 14 of the commission’s 18 members in order to be considered for congressional approval. Bowles said that while he couldn’t predict how many members would support the final plan, he was confident the commission’s work had been a success. “Al and I couldn’t be happier with where we are in the process,” he said. “Regardless of how the vote turns out, I think we’ve won and we’ve won big.”
Bowles said the final plan was better than their initial recommendations, or chairman’s mark, released Nov. 10. “The plan we submit tomorrow…it’s not going be some watered down version of the chairman’s mark, that I can guarantee you,” Bowles said. “We have met with and listened to every single member of this commission and we think they have made this plan stronger.”