Simpson, Bowles to offer new plan to wipe out debt

Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles say they are coming out with a new plan to bring the U.S. deficit under control. In a plan to be announced Friday, Bowles and Simpson, who led President Barack Obama's 2010 fiscal commission, are expected to propose greater spending cuts than Obama and the Democrats have been willing to concede and about the same amount of taxes the president's 2014 budget calls for, The Hill reported. The men's plan would trim spending by about $700 billion more than Obama has called for and about $1.1 trillion more than Senate Democrats want. It also calls for $585 billion in new tax revenue, which is below the $975 billion the Senate Democrats want, the Washington publication said. The plan would wipe out all tax deductions except for those deemed the highest priority. It also would create a territorial tax system while keeping progressive tax rates, The Hill said. "By picking up on where budget negotiations left off last December, we have crafted a plan that we believe could be enacted into law over the course of this year, and would represent a tremendous step forward in putting our nation on a fiscally sustainable course," Simpson and Bowles wrote about their proposal. They project their plan would result in $5.2 trillion in deficit reduction. Obama and the Senate Democrats say they would achieve $4.3 trillion in reductions with their budgets. The plan put forth by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., would cut $4.6 trillion in spending with no tax increases while keeping the $1.2 trillion sequester in place, something Simpson-Bowles and the Democrats propose eliminating. The new Simpson-Bowles plan would raise the eligibility age for Medicare, change the way inflation is calculated for Social Security benefits and other healthcare cuts to save $280 billion, cut $220 billion in defense spending and $40 billion in farm subsidies.