Deficit Plan Unlikely to Muster Support

Congress has agreed to take up the deficit commission's recommendations-which, it was revealed Wednesday, include cuts to Medicare and Social Security, eliminating NPR, eliminating federal jobs, and $100 billion in cuts in defense-if 14 of the panel's 18 members approve of its plan. "It might not even get a majority," writes Ezra Klein. One member, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, says "This is not a proposal I could support." The full panel hasn't debated the proposal yet, but Klein writes that "the report doesn't fulfill its basic purpose, which was demonstrating enough consensus among congressional representatives of both parties to convince the public and the political system that Congress is ready to make these choices."