Obama to address deficit commission as meetings begin next week
By APMonday, April 19, 2010
Deficit panel convenes next week
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will open the first meeting of his commission to tackle the soaring budget deficit.
The panel convenes next week to begin the difficult job of coming up with a bipartisan debt reduction plan in a polarized election year.
The 18-member panel also will hear from Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke, who has been issuing increasingly dire warnings about the dangers of the budget deficit. It reached $1.4 trillion last year.
Bernanke speaks to the panel on April 27.
Obama has asked the panel to come with a plan to cut the deficit to 3 percent of the size of the economy within five years. It’ll take agreement among 14 members to produce a plan, including at least half of the panel’s Republicans.
