Breaking: McConnell Reid is Out, Major Deficit Reduction Plan i.e. Gang of 6 On the Table

[jtown1123]

Please start bombarding your reps and the White House with phone calls. This new report from Sam Stein at Huffington Post says Boehner and Obama are working on a huge deficit reduction bill to pass the debt ceiling. We all know this is going to include some devastating cuts to SS, Medicare, Medicaid (if they use Gang of 6) and pretty much everything we hold dear. This is going to get rammed down everyone's throats at the last second. I doubt we can stop it but we have to try...

Huffington Post

McConnell-Reid Debt Deal Close To Being Scrapped, Larger Package Reportedly In Reach

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/21/mcconnell-reid-debt-plan_n_905699.html?1311266740


The president and his team had separate meetings on Wednesday evening with congressional Democratic and Republican leadership to chart out a way forward on the debt ceiling deal. The administration pressed, as it has in the past, for lawmakers to coalesce around as big a deficit reduction package as politically possible. There are conflicting reports as to what was discussed. But according to multiple sources from both parties, the administration signaled a willingness to tackle a bigger plan than even that proposed by the bipartisan Gang of Six.

What such a deal would look like is difficult to pin down in detail, as much of the Gang of Six proposal requires congressional committees to write in the specific cuts to programs under their purview. But it would involve steep reductions in health care spending -- both in Medicare and Medicaid. In previous debt ceiling negotiations, the administration has supported further means-testing elements of Medicare as well as raising the eligibility age of the program. Cuts to Medicare suppliers would also be part of a larger package, as would adjusting the payment structure of Social Security so that a lower level of benefits was paid out over time.