Following is a letter which was sent to a friend of mine who received permission to share it others.  It details the experience Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson had in dealing with our leader.  As we all know, Mr. Bowles is a Democrat and Mr. Simpson is a Republican and were appointed by our current president to come up with a plan and path forward to help the nation get back on a sound fiscal footing.  It was to include spending limits and controls that would address existing entitlements, a change in tax codes and the abolishment of  selected existing tax breaks for special interest groups. Accordingly, it called for a sound fiscal plan that would get us into reasonable balance in ten years.  

As everyone knows, Alan Simpson, a Republican, is a retired Senator from Wyoming and is known for his frank opinions and statements and in some ways seen as eccentric in some of his views.  Erskine Bowles, a Democrat, who was chief of staff in former administrations, is a respected Democrat and was an equal partner in putting this study and report together with supposedly high respect and influence in the Democratic Party.  

The intent was for the current president to use their report as a road map to fiscal responsibility.  This report was issued in 2010 and was quickly dismissed by the president as a non-starter prior to the election of 2012 based on its perceived political impact on his re-election.  Senator Simpson was asked for his assessment of our current national fiscal and spending problems and his view on the future efforts needed to turn the nation around. His first answer was that with this president we will never make progress. When Simpson and Bowles requested time with the president to urge him to seriously consider their report, they were stunned by the response.  

The president told them that he would take  no action on any of the Commission’s recommendations and explained his rationale in the following way – prior to his re-election and probably after his re-election he would do nothing.  Simply put, it was a pure political decision.  He stated that to accept reductions in the growth of entitlements would alienate his base and he would only look at the tax increase side of the recommendations after the election.  He further added that to accept the recommendations would give the Republicans a victory as seen by the voters and he was not ever going to do that now or ever.  He was adamant that he wanted  more spending and more taxes and that he would pursue that course throughout his administration until his last day in office.  Stunned by that answer, Bowles asked him if he would do what’s right for the country and exert some leadership to save the nation’s fiscal future.  Obama’s response was that he would let the next president worry about the spending and debt, but he was going to spend and tax and re-distribute wealth throughout his term.

Both men were furious and after spending 1.5 hours with the president, they left in utter disbelief.  Bowles, thinking that he could have some credibility with the democrats in the House and Senate tried to gather some influence with that group and was quickly advised that the Obama agenda would go forward at all costs.  In one desperate attempt to get some traction, Bowles thought that if he went to see the president without Simpson being there, he could have a more meaningful result.  That effort resulted in the same answer as they got the first time and that meeting was closer to the election and as dismissed as untimely and unnecessary by Obama.  The end result is what we are now seeing each and every day.  Bowles and Simpson believe that this president is not interested in anything except his political agenda.

kommonsentsjane