The Gang Of Six And The Debt Crisis

The Gang of Six plan to solve the debt ceiling crisis. What will it mean? Will it save us? Is it the answer — the magic bullet?

And then there was light –- maybe, maybe –- in the debt ceiling debate.

The U.S. Senate’s bipartisan “Gang of Six,” late in the game, putting a plan on the table. It would cut the federal deficit by nearly $4 trillion over the next decade. It would dig into military spending, the tax code, Social Security, Medicare.

Most amazingly, it has Republicans and Democrats talking. Not all like it.

Hardliners on the right call them the “gang of squish.”

Progressives are warning of Social Security devastation.

Nothing’s guaranteed. But here’s a plan.

This hour On Point: the Gang of Six solution.
-Tom Ashbrook
Guests:

Major Garrett, congressional correspondent, National Journal.

Gail Chaddock, reporter Reporter, Christian Science Monitor.

Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

Jared Bernstein, senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.  From 2009 to 2011, he was chief economist and economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, executive director of the White House Task Force on the Middle Class, and a member of President Obama’s economic team.