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POLICY INSIGHT
BEYOND THE NUMBERS

Budget from Reps. Cooper and LaTourette Doesn’t Live Up to Its Name

| By CBPP

We’ve released an analysis of the new budget proposal from Reps. Jim Cooper and Steven LaTourette.  Here’s the opening:

Reps. Jim Cooper (D-TN) and Steven LaTourette (R-OH) unveiled a budget plan on March 27 that they call the “Simpson-Bowles Budget.”  It departs significantly, however, from the Simpson-Bowles commission plan in key respects — raising taxes much less, cutting much more from non-security discretionary programs and less from defense and other security programs, and, as a result, providing a blueprint that’s significantly to the right of the Simpson-Bowles commission plan.

The Senate’s Gang of Six proposal last summer showed that policymakers can design a balanced, relatively well-designed deficit-reduction package using the framework of the Simpson-Bowles commission report.  Unfortunately, the Cooper-LaTourette plans falls well short of the Gang of Six plan and does not represent the same type of balanced policy.

Click here for the full report.