Democrat Erskine Bowles Says in CBS ‘Face the Nation’ … “We Have to Cut Spending … In order to Put out Fiscal House in Order”

Bowles states emphatically that increasing taxes top tax rates back to Clinton era rates will do nothing to solves the problem … we need to cut spending. The presidents plan is not enough. 

Democrat Erskine Bowles, who served as President Bill Clinton’s White House Deputy Chief of Staff and one half of the Bowles-Simpson debt reduction duo, said Sunday on CBS’s ‘Face the Nation’ that we have to cut spending to get out fiscal house in order. Bowles went on to say, “the most important thing is, if we are going to raise revenue and if we are going to raise it in any form then we darn well better well cut spending. Cuz spending is the biggest part of this problem and the biggest part of the problem is that healthcare is growing at a greater rate than GDP.”

From CBS:

Bowles said movement is apparent because both sides have taken positions that differ from previously hardened stances. He noted Boehner’s willingness to increase taxes and the president’s openness to cut entitlements.

Although Bowles expressed some optimism, he said the president has to go further. He said the president’s proposal to cut around $350 billion to Medicare is “not enough.”

“We simply made promises we can’t keep. We’ve got to face up to it,” Bowles said of the health care program for seniors. “We’re going to have to do more.”

The full VIDEO of Bowles appearance on CBS ‘Face the Nation’ can be seen HERE.