House Republican leaders will meet on Wednesday with Erskine Bowles, the former Clinton White House chief of staff who co-chaired President Obama’s fiscal commission, according to Speaker John Boehner’s (R-OH) office.
The Bowles-Simpson commission devised long-term debt reduction policies worth trillions of dollars in spending cuts and new tax revenues.
“People in both parties agree we need a ‘balanced approach’ to deal with our deficit and debt and help our economy create jobs,” Boehner said in a statement. “As we’ve seen in recent days, the American people support an approach that involves both major spending cuts and additional revenue via tax reform with lower tax rates. We look forward to talking to Mr. Bowles and other members of the coalition about their ideas to avert the ‘fiscal cliff’ without tax hikes that target small businesses and cost jobs.”
