White House fiscal commission co-chair Erskine Bowles told TPM on Wednesday morning that Rep. Tom Cole’s (R-OK) call for Republicans to accept President Obama’s tax offer in the short term is “a step forward.” He said he intends to tell House GOP leaders that later in the day.
“I think it’s a step forward,” Bowles told TPM before a Washington breakfast with reporters organized by the Christian Science Monitor. “Republicans are going to have to talk about revenue, and Democrats are going to have to talk about real spending cuts, particularly in the entitlement programs.”
“It’ll be okay,” he said, referring to extending 98 percent of the Bush-era tax rates for now. “But it has to be done in conjunction with reducing spending. And otherwise we don’t solve the problem. So revenues is only one part of the equation. The other part of the equation is getting these entitlement programs under control.”
Asked what he intends to tell House Republican leaders when the meet later in the day to discuss the fiscal cliff, he said, “Exactly what I just told you.”
