Senate Group on
Debt Loses a Key Republican
Published: May 17, 2011 - New York Times
WASHINGTON — The already weak prospects for a bipartisan debt-reduction deal
this year dimmed further on Tuesday when a Republican member of the Senate’s
“Gang of Six,” Senator Tom
Coburn of Oklahoma, withdrew after months of private negotiations amid
differences over changes to Medicare.
“He is disappointed the group has not been able to bridge the gap between
what needs to happen and what senators will support,” said a Coburn spokesman,
John Hart. “He has decided to take a break from the talks.”
While Mr. Hart’s statement said the talks were at “an impasse,” it left
little doubt that Mr. Coburn did not expect to return. “He still hopes the
Senate will, on a bipartisan basis, pass a long-term deficit-reduction package
this year,” Mr. Hart said. “He looks forward to working with anyone who is
interested in putting forward a plan that is specific, balanced and
comprehensive.”
The talks are separate from negotiations begun recently between the White
House and Congressional leaders on reducing the debt. But the progress of the
Gang of Six was seen as a harbinger of whether the two parties could come
together and compromise on spending and taxes.
Two other Republicans, Saxby
Chambliss of Georgia and Michael D. Crapo of Idaho, for now remain in the
group along with three Democrats, Kent
Conrad of North Dakota, the chairman of the Budget Committee; Richard J.
Durbin of Illinois, the assistant majority leader; and Mark Warner of Virginia,
the organizer along with Mr. Chambliss, of the five-month-old effort. The five
met for about four hours on Tuesday, and agreed to meet again on Wednesday.
“The group continues to meet,” said a Chambliss spokeswoman, Bronwyn Lance
Chester.
Mr. Crapo, too, “continues to work toward a deal with the group and remains
hopeful that a resolution can be reached,” said his spokeswoman, Susan Wheeler.
“The group is facing tough issues, but it has faced tough issues before and
continued to work on the issue.”
The six senators met for dinner on Monday and their discussion was described
as impassioned at times after Mr. Coburn came with new demands for $130 billion
in additional reductions in Medicare spending over the coming decade. The group
agreed to meet all afternoon on Tuesday, but Mr. Coburn arrived at Mr. Warner’s
office before the others and left before they arrived. Mr. Coburn has been
considered by many to be the linchpin for the other Republicans as they faced
pressures from the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky; the
antitax activist Grover
G. Norquist and various conservative groups to quit the group and not
compromise with the Democrats on any plan that would raise revenues.
Yet Mr. Coburn’s involvement was always seen as fragile given his reputation
as an independent thinker with little experience at compromise.
Colleagues in recent days had wondered whether he would withdraw after a
report from the Senate Ethics Committee on the conduct of former Senator John
Ensign of Nevada implicated Mr. Coburn, a friend of Mr. Ensign’s, for helping to
arrange controversial payments to the husband of Mr. Ensign’s former mistress.
One controversy was enough without inviting more by reaching a bipartisan budget
deal, the thinking went.
The six senators have been trying since December to write into legislation
the recommendations made that month by a majority of the members of President
Obama’s bipartisan fiscal panel. The goal was a bill that would save more than
$4 trillion over 10 years, and more in the years beyond that, through a mix of
caps on annual domestic and military spending, cost-saving changes to Medicare
and Medicaid
and an overhaul of the tax code.
That overhaul would end many tax breaks and loopholes and use the higher
revenues to lower tax rates for individuals and corporations and to reduce
annual deficits. The plan would also overhaul Social
Security to make it solvent for 75 years.
Mr. Coburn, along with Mr. Conrad, Mr. Durbin and Mr. Crapo, were members of
the panel’s majority. After its report, they accepted the bipartisan invitation
of Mr. Warner and Mr. Chambliss to try to write a bill that could be a model for
bipartisan compromise between the White House and Republicans.
The Obama administration was wary of the effort, believing it started from a
position too far to the right, but encouraged the show of bipartisanship. Both
Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress, their eyes on the 2012 elections,
were openly opposed — Democrats because they did not want to make changes to
Social Security and Republicans because they did not want to raise taxes.