Budget from Reps. Cooper and LaTourette Doesn’t Live Up to Its Name

We’ve released an analysis of the new budget proposal from Reps. Jim Cooper and Steven LaTourette.  Here’s the opening:

Reps. Jim Cooper (D-TN) and Steven LaTourette (R-OH) unveiled a budget plan on March 27 that they call the “Simpson-Bowles Budget.”  It departs significantly, however, from the Simpson-Bowles commission plan in key respects — raising taxes much less, cutting much more from non-security discretionary programs and less from defense and other security programs, and, as a result, providing a blueprint that’s significantly to the right of the Simpson-Bowles commission plan.

The Senate’s Gang of Six proposal last summer showed that policymakers can design a balanced, relatively well-designed deficit-reduction package using the framework of the Simpson-Bowles commission report.  Unfortunately, the Cooper-LaTourette plans falls well short of the Gang of Six plan and does not represent the same type of balanced policy.

Click here for the full report.