Obama weighs options for tax increases
CNN has learned President Obama is seriously considering an executive order to create a bipartisan commission that could weigh sweeping tax increases and spending cuts to popular programs like Social Security and Medicare in order to try slash the soaring federal deficit.
Documents obtained by CNN show that top advisers to the President have been privately weighing various versions of a commission and there are differing opinions about how to structure it. Officials say that some inside the administration are pushing for a narrow mandate because it's too complicated to tackle reform of the tax system and various popular federal spending programs all at once.
The various financial problems faced by the US are probably going to require some tax increases in the near future. A bipartisan commission would give Congress and the President some cover for highly unpopular changes. So something along these lines is pretty likely.
There is no way to know if this is a good or bad idea yet. If it's actually bipartisan and unbiased and has a sensible mandate it could be a good thing. Sensible in this case means either broad enough that they can look into everything the government should do to improve it's finance or a mandate that is focused on one relatively narrow problem.
What often happens with these commissions though is that the members and mandate are carefully selected to control the outcome. In that case, look for a group loaded with conservative Democrats, with a mandate to decide how to raise taxes and cut social spending.
Jay