A White House deficit-reduction commission has recommended mass layoffs of government workers – up to 200,000, or 10% of the workforce, by 2020, major cuts in military spending, and raising taxes and gasoline prices as the necessary components of a plan to reduce the U.S. national deficit. The 58-page document, termed “The Moment of Truth,” calculates that implementation of its proposals would results in a $4 trillion reduction in the U.S. deficit by 2020. The report found that while government spending had reached a post-World War II high of 24% of the GDP, tax levels had decreased to 15%, their lowest levels since 1950.
“We cannot play games or put off hard choices any longer. Without regard to party, we have a patriotic duty to keep the promise of America to give our children and grandchildren a better life,” the commission’s directors said. Democrat Erskine Bowles and Republican Alan Simpson, co-chairmen of the bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, continued: “Our challenge is clear and inescapable: America cannot be great if we go broke.”
The report is non-binding and is not expected to gain the 14 out of 18 commission members’ votes required to issue a formal recommendation to the President and Congress. But the report is expected to influence future discussions regarding the national budget and debt levels.
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