As the Nov. 23 deadline looms for Congress’s Budge Deficit “Super Committee” to release a set of recommendations for cutting the deficit by $1.2 trillion, here are some ideas that I laid out in a piece for AARP’s magazine for cutting spending and raising revenue.
My assignment from AARP was to find a dozen solutions for cutting Medicare that will cause minimum pain to Medicare beneficiaries. It wasn’t an easy story to write because there really aren’t any options left to reduce Medicare spending that won’t cause beneficiaries some pain.
So I talked to a mix of conservative, moderate and liberal budget experts to ask them what they thought. The ideas that were most often raised were those proposed by the bipartisan deficit commission chaired by former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson and former Democrat White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles. I also added a few options raised by the Congressional Budget Office, including imposing a 3-cent tax on sugary drinks.
Though the deadline is only a week away, it appears the Super Committee isn’t going to be able to come up with any solutions, according to the Washington Post.
