Panel Rejects Deficit Plan

President Obama’s budget panel fell short of the 14 votes needed to send the plan to Congress on Friday. You weren’t expecting anything else, were you? The 11-7 vote came as no surprise since the plan prescribed a series of bitter pills—like raising taxes on the rich and cutting Social Security—that members of both parties refused to swallow. Five of the six senators on the panel voted in favor of the plan, but five of the six House representatives voted against it.