Obama will present his budget to Congress in February. Ryan and Conrad will then present their own draft budgets, each with an eye towards their parties’ policy agendas and the 2012 election.
“The path of least resistance for all three of these key players would be to dig in, tend to their political bases and blame each other for gridlock,” warns Robert L. Bixby, executive director of The Concord Coalition. “We’ve seen that movie and it doesn’t end well.”
A better alternative, Bixby says in a new op-ed for CNBC, would be compromise and careful consideration of the work of two bipartisan commissions that proposed a mix of spending cuts and revenue increases that would be phased in as the economy strengthens:
“If Obama and Ryan join Conrad’s call for a summit to negotiate a joint budget plan—building on the solid groundwork of the two commissions—they may be able to achieve a game-changing breakthrough.”
External links:
Senate Budget Committee
House Budget Committee: Republican Website
Rep. Paul Ryan: House Website
Sen. Kent Conrad: Senate Website
