The Debt Problem In One Word: Spending
With the death of Osama bin Laden fading from the front pages, the focus in Washington is turning once again to the prosaic problem of how to wrangle the country’s massive and growing debt problem.
On Tuesday, Vice President Joe Biden held a second round of talks with a bipartisan group of lawmakers hoping to find some common ground.
But the battle lines are clear: Republicans want to focus on spending — House Speaker John Boehner said Monday night that tax hikes were off-limits but that spending, including Medicare, must be on the table. Meanwhile, President Obama and his fellow Democrats want a mix of tax hikes and spending cuts that leave Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security largely untouched.