Can This Budget Plan Lead to Congressional Compromise?

Simpson and Bowles are well-known fiscal negotiators. Both served as co-chairmen of the White House’s 2010 deficit-reduction panel that developed a bipartisan plan for tax and spending adjustments. However, the administration and congressional leaders examined the proposal and found it lacking.

In total, the duo have made at least three attempts in the past three years to broker a deficit-reduction deal. The most recent was their late 2012 effort to orchestrate a compromise between the White House and congressional leaders regarding the fiscal cliff.

Now, Simpson and Bowles have once again tried to develop a solution to avoid the automated cuts, reported The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. However, the environment in Washington is hardly suited for compromise. Budget discussions in Washington are halting, at best; Democrats and Republicans are both of the opinion that the federal budget deficit must be reduced, but what they cannot agree on is how and by how much.