(Host) Congressman Peter Welch is working to put together a bipartisan coalition of House members to support a budget deficit deal that will include new tax revenues and some changes to entitlement programs.
Welch says the group is trying to reduce the deficit by at least $4 trillion over the next 10 years.
VPR’s Bob Kinzel reports:
(Kinzel) A special Congressional super committee faces a deadline of Thanksgiving to come up with a plan to reduce the federal budget deficit by just over $1 trillion over the next 10 years.
If the committee fails to reach agreement on a plan, or if Congress fails to pass it, automatic cuts will go into place and military spending will take the biggest hit.
A number of Republicans in Congress say they’ll oppose efforts to raise new revenue as part of the plan and many Democrats say they’ll oppose efforts to reform entitlement programs including Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
Congressman Peter Welch told members of the Montpelier Rotary that he’s part of a bipartisan group of House members who think any final solution must include both approaches.
(Welch) "We’re asking this super committee to go big and go bold to go for $4 trillion and obviously that requires that everything be on the table. So there are a lot of us who are pushing for that…if you approach this as a practical problem to be solved rather than an ideological battle to be won well then you can solve it."
(Kinzel) Welch says it isn’t going to be easy for Republicans in this group to buck their leadership on the issue of new revenue.
(Welch) "The break through here is that some of the Republicans who will sign this, it’s not finalized yet, but they’re acknowledging that revenues have to be on the table. All of us on the Democratic side are acknowledging that all the spending has to be on the table. That means reforms in even the entitlement programs."
(Kinzel) And Welch admits that it’s going to be hard to ask Democrats to accept reforms to important entitlement programs.
(Welch) "I say that as a person who’s a strong defender of Medicare, a strong supporter of Social Security. But if you’re a strong defender and there’s ways to improve it, to make it more sustainable, I feel that I have the major responsibility as your representative to search and fight for those ways to do that."
(Kinzel) Welch expects to release the names of the House members who are committed to this approach sometime next week.
For VPR News, I’m Bob Kinzel in Montpelier