Erskine Bowles, Alan Simpson to Lead Obama's Deficit Commission

(CBS/iStockPhoto)

President Obama on Thursday will sign an executive order establishing the bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (previously known as the deficit commission). He will also announce the commission's co-chairs, according to a senior administration official, CBS News White House Correspondent Mark Knoller reports.

The president will appoint former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles and former Republican Senate Whip Alan Simpson will serve as co-chairs, a senior official confirms to CBS News.

Bowles, currently president of the University of North Carolina, served as White House chief of staff under former President Clinton from 1996 to 1998. He brokered the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, with the Republican leadership in Congress, helping to generate the first balanced budget in nearly 30 years.

Simpson represented Wyoming in the Senate from 1979 to 1997. From 1985 to 1995, he was the Republican whip in the Senate, and he chaired the Senate Finance Committee's Subcommittee on Social Security. He now practices law in Wyoming.

[lizb1]

Some of us in NC wondered why Bowles announced his retirement as UNC system president last week after a scant 4 years on the job. We thought it might have been the political scandal (no, not the John Edwards scandal, the Mike Easley scandal)that involved UNC that was driving him out. Guess we should have known the Dems were beckoning again.

[proudmilvet]

Why even bother with this? The Republicans do not intend to cooperate with Obama on anything anyway. To them it is all a game to be played until they are back in power. Even though the Commission will have former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson on it, the current Republicans will oppose it because Obama proposed it. They will probably also go so far as calling Simpson a RINO because he is helping Obama. Pathetic!