Today, President Obama named 4 members of the newly-formed "Debt Panel." His choices included 2 Democrats AND 2 Republicans. These new 4 come in addition to 3 members named last week. The goal of this panel, which was created by an executive order, is to find ways to reduce the national debt by 2015 by December 1 of this year. However, the interest on the national debt will not be included in calculations, and will instead focus on "long-term changes on taxes and entitlement programs." I appreciate Obama reaching across the aisle here, but how does he expect to reach an agreement on these things? Republicans and Democrats have very different views on balancing the budget, and progress seems to be very few and far between. Sure, the panel will have 10 Democrats and 8 Republicans when all is said and done, but you know that the Republicans will just be voted down everytime. I guess adding them to the panel was just a facade because I can almost guarantee they'll have limited insight.
You can form your own opinion after reading the New York Times article here.
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