Warner Wants the Committee to Go Above and Beyond

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In a Bloomberg article [3], Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) called for the Joint Committee set up by the recent debt deal to exceed its $1.5 trillion target for deficit reduction this decade. Specifically, he wants a $4 trillion plan over ten years.

The article quoted Warner as saying:

"Even if the super committee knocks another $1.5 trillion off our debt, that’s still not going to be enough,” Warner said on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” airing this weekend. “Unless we can also take on the issue of entitlement reform and tax reform to generate revenue, I don’t think we’re going to get there,” he said.

These comments should not be of any surprise coming from a member of the Gang of Six [4], who spent this year working on a comprehensive, bipartisan fiscal plan. Also, he said that coming up with this kind of plan "should not be the kind of ultimate heavy lift," and having done this kind of work already, Warner is in a good position to speak on that. 

Of course, as we have mentioned before [5], even if the Committee achieves its mandate of $1.5 trillion in savings over ten years, debt would still be on an upward path, assuming that lawmakers continue to extend various policies.