There are two battles being waged here. First there is the very important budget/tax battle that the Simpson-Bowles Commission was charged with addressing. That commission wouldn't sign on to the Simpson-Bowles Plan. The specifics of Simpson-Bowles are out of date, but it might be a place to start discussion.

The second battle being waged is being waged by the conservative entertainment industry (Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and the rest of Talk Radio, and the politicians and pundits who spend time in the bubble) to pull the Republican faithful back in line. "Simpson-Bowles Plan" is a favorite undefined term among the fans base of the conservative entertainment industry. Repeating it over and over is good for those in the conservative entertainment industry, including Senator Graham (of the many interviews on the Sunday shows.) Get used to hearing the nebulous phrase "Simpson-Bowles" used over and over like a talisman by the conservative entertainment industry. The conservative media types and their fan base might no what it means but it sounds good.

Here's a link to the Simpson-Bowles recommendations:

http://www.thepoliticalguide.com/Issues/Simpson-Bowles/

It would need to be updated, but it seems to me a good place to start. It does practically everything that both parties say they want to do:

simplify taxes, lower top individual tax rates and corporate rates, repeals the alt min tax, removes and caps most deductions, eliminates tax subsidies, credits, and expenditures, makes SS solvent, includes debt reduction, spending cuts across the board.

I get steve's point, but politically the R's are in a weak position and Simpson-Bowles probably looks pretty good to them about now.

Like Ponce de Leon, who sought-and did not find- the fabled Fountain of Youth, so too will politicians search for- and also not find- the fabled Black (loop) Hole that is consuming all taxes that are NOT MINE.

Welcome to the new era of Assertive Reasoning.I wish journalists ask these guys to sketch out their understanding of each policy or plan they talk about and they should be expected to be challenged on that understanding.

For a while now,i've lost interest in political discussions between the Dems and the Republicans,because one side(Republicans) has made no intellectual effort to be honest and thoughtful.

Time to resurrect the hashtag 'It isn't intended to be factually true'...we're baaaaacccccckkkkkk.

Considering it was rich people that created all this mess we are in by paying off politicians to manipulate the laws and regulations. These rich people need to pony it up now in taxes for what they have caused. All the rich people’s craving of power, control, and greed has caused a total mess throughout the world and they need to now pay the price for their outright stupidity. Using excuses of privatizing Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid just doesn’t fly, especially when people who are on these benefits did not cause the problems we have today. Social Security has nothing wrong with it and is nothing to do with what rich people caused so any bastard that wants to change that can take a fly leap off a short pier. Going off the cliff would actually be a good thing, if that is what it takes for rich people to start paying for what they broke and had no consideration on how it was going to affect people or our environment. Rich people and the Republicans making up pitiful excuses just so they can avoid paying for what they caused is no excuse and just another attempt to keep pulling crap for their own self interests. And we are suppose to have sympathy for these rich people and Republicans. Rich people and Republicans go to hell you bastards.

Sounds like the fiscal cliff is somewhat similar is some respects

• Higher taxes for all
• Lower tax rates with no deductions for 20-30 million taxpayers (AMT)
• Spending cuts

Two out of three ain't bad.

SCHAKOWSKY ANALYSIS FINDS BOWLES-SIMPSON PROPOSAL FAILS TO PROVIDE BALANCED DEFICIT REDUCTION

WASHINGTON, DC (September 12, 2012) – Today, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) released an analysis of the deficit reduction plan proposed by National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform co-Chairs Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson. “Bowles-Simpson: Less Than Meets the Eye” dispels the notion that the so-called “Bowles-Simpson” proposal is a balanced approach to reduce the deficit. Instead, this analysis is an easy-to-digest resource that spells out how the “Bowles-Simpson” proposal places too much of the deficit reduction burden on seniors, the middle class, and low-income families.

“The Bowles-Simpson proposal has become a kind of short-hand in Washington for what a balanced, bipartisan deficit-reduction deal could look like. When given a closer look, the plan is anything but balanced,” said Rep. Schakowsky. “Bowles-Simpson is touted by inside-the-Beltway pundits who think that cutting benefits for seniors who have an average income of $22,000 a year is the type of ‘hard choice’ we need to be making. We should not and need not reduce the deficit on the backs of seniors and others who survive on a low income.”

As a member of the Commission, Rep. Schakowsky voted against the proposal and released an alternative proposal that met and exceeded the President’s goal of reaching primary budget balance in 2015.

Rep. Schakowsky’s plan proposes increased investment in jobs, infrastructure, education, and research and development to strengthen the economy and generate growth. The plan also calls for the protection of Medicare, Medicaid and Obamacare while proposing additional steps to bring down the cost of health care overall. The plan would raise the top tax rates on the wealthy and end tax subsidies for big oil and highly-profitable corporations that ship jobs and profits overseas. It would eliminate wasteful military spending and focus on modern threats. The plan proposes additional revenue opportunities to strengthen Social Security and achieve long-term solvency without cutting benefits.

“The good news is that there is a better way,” said Rep. Schakowsky. “Real balanced proposals are not out of reach – I have proposed a concrete plan and the Congressional Progressive Caucus’s Deal for All also shows a more balanced way to achieve fiscal responsibility. Americans support raising revenues by asking more from millionaires and billionaires; they want to protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid; and they don’t want to slash investments that built the middle class. Bowles-Simpson won’t get us there.”

There is a progressive plan that offers balanced deficit reduction:

A Progressive Deficit Reduction Plan

1. Repeal all of the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax breaks for the top two percent. Repealing the 2001 and 2003 tax breaks for the top two percent would reduce the deficit by about $1 trillion over the next decade. After President Clinton increased taxes on the top two percent, the economy added over 22 million jobs. After President Bush reduced taxes for the rich, the economy lost over 600,000 private sector jobs.
2. Create an emergency deficit-reduction surtax on millionaires. Enacting a 5.4 percent surtax on adjusted gross income of more than $1 million would raise over $383 billion over 10 years, according to the Joint Tax Committee. According to a February 2011 NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, 81 percent of the American people support the creation of a millionaires surtax to reduce the deficit.
3. End tax breaks and subsidies for big oil, gas and coal companies. If we ended tax breaks and subsidies for big oil, gas, and coal companies, we could reduce the deficit by more than $113 billion over the next ten years. The five largest oil companies in the United States have earned about $1 trillion in profits over the past decade.
4. Establish a Wall Street speculation fee of 0.03 percent on the sale of credit default swaps, derivatives, stocks, options, and futures. Both the economic crisis and the deficit crisis are a direct result of the greed and recklessness on Wall Street. Establishing a speculation fee would reduce gambling on Wall Street, encourage the financial sector to invest in the productive economy, and reduce the deficit by $350 billion over 10 years without harming average Americans.
5. Eliminate tax breaks for companies shipping American jobs overseas. Today, the U.S. government is actually rewarding companies that move U.S. manufacturing jobs overseas through loopholes in the tax code known as deferral and foreign source income. During the last decade, the U.S. lost about 30% of its manufacturing jobs and over 56,000 factories have been shut down. If we eliminated these tax loopholes, the Joint Tax Committee has estimated that we could raise more than $582 billion in revenue over the next ten years.
6. Prohibit abusive and illegal offshore tax shelters. Each and every year, the United States loses an estimated $100 billion in tax revenues due to offshore tax abuses by the wealthy and large corporations. The situation has become so absurd that one five-story office building in the Cayman Islands is now the "home" to more than 18,000 corporations. The wealthy and large corporations should not be allowed to avoid paying taxes by setting up tax shelters in Panama, the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, the Bahamas or other tax haven countries. Cracking down on offshore tax shelters could reduce the deficit by as much as $1 trillion over the next decade.
7. Establish a currency manipulation fee on China and other countries. As almost everyone knows, China is manipulating its currency, giving it an unfair trade advantage over the United States and destroying decent paying manufacturing jobs in the process. If we imposed a currency manipulation fee on China and other currency manipulators, the Economic Policy Institute has estimated that we could raise $500 billion over 10 years and create 1 million jobs in the process.
8. Tax capital gains and dividends the same as work. Taxing capital gains and dividends the same way that we tax work would raise more than $730 billion over the next decade. Warren Buffet has often said that he pays a lower effective tax rate than his secretary. The reason for this is that the wealthy obtain most of their income from capital gains and dividends, which is taxed at a much lower rate than work. Right now, the top marginal income tax for working is 35%, but the tax rate on corporate dividends and capital gains is only 15%.
9. Establish a Progressive Estate Tax. If we established a progressive estate tax on inherited wealth of more than $3.5 million, we could raise more than $300 billion over 10 years. Sen. Sanders introduced the Responsible Estate Tax Act that would reduce the deficit in a fair way while ensuring that 99.7 percent of Americans who lose a loved one would never see a dime of their loved one's estate paid in federal estate taxes.
10. Reduce unnecessary and wasteful spending at the Pentagon, which now consumes over half of our discretionary budget. Much of the huge spending at the Pentagon is devoted to spending money on Cold War weapons programs to fight a Soviet Union that no longer exists. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Lawrence Korb, an Assistant Secretary of Defense under Ronald Reagan, have estimated that we could achieve significant savings of around $100 billion a year at the Pentagon while still ensuring that the United States has the strongest and most powerful military in the world.
11. Require Medicare to negotiate for lower prescription drug prices with the pharmaceutical industry. Requiring Medicare to negotiate drug prices, similarly to what the VA currently does, would save more than $157 billion over 10 years.
12. Eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse within every federal government agency. Virtually everyone agrees that there is waste, fraud, and abuse in every agency of the federal government. Rooting out this waste, fraud, and abuse could save between $150 billion and $200 billion over the next 10 years.

Now you know how he got elected---we uns in the south are illiterate buffoons.

Remember that Bowles-Simpson recommendations were rejected by the bi-partisan debt reduction committee set up by the President. The Democrats and Liberals have won a mandate in the election to not weaken Affordable Care, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Social Security solvency is protected by removing the earnings cap on salaries and wages.

So we have cosigned the Right into their self made bubble on all things political and social. The left needs, NO MUST, come out of its fiscal bubble. As it stands now, Obama will probably DOUBLE the national debt and with taxes due to rise via Obama-care, payroll taxes and income and capital gain rates (in almost any budget deal), we are not on the cusp of a new 90's. If we can avoid a recession, we are going to get more of the same LOW GROWTH. Obama and the Ds have no real plan. It sad......