Fiscal commission chairmen give Obama budget mixed review

{mosads}Simpson and Bowles praised Obama for replacing automatic cuts triggered by the failure of the supercommittee.

“We expect Congressional Republicans to now put forward their own proposal for deficit reduction that exceeds the BCA goals while still reflecting their own priorities in the coming weeks,” they said.

 They said that leaders have to move beyond “opening positions” like the Obama budget to a real deficit grand bargain that puts “the debt on a downward path relative to the economy, while getting health and retirement spending on a sustainable path and overhauling the tax code in a way that both reduces the deficit and improves the nation’s economic growth and competitiveness. “

The Bowles-Simpson comments follow similar mixed reviews from deficit hawks from the Bipartisan Policy Center, Concord Coalition and Center for a Responsible Federal Budget.

The liberal Economic Policy Institute in contrast said Obama should not have stuck to discretionary cuts in the Budget Control Act because the economy is still too weak.