There’s a happy frenzy in the Senate right now, with Democrats and safe-seat Republicans singing the praises of the new Gang of Six framework. In the morning, Tom Coburn returned to the Gang and started selling a deficit reduction plan that cuts spending in the short term by $500 million now and $3.7 trillion in the long term, and flattens the tax code to raise revenue.
“We should declare victory,” Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., told reporters. “If we can pass this with 60 or 70 votes in the Senate, it can get momentum.”
Sen. Lamar Alexander, who had signed the Cut, Cap, and Balance pledge, told me it wasn’t inconsistent with his own support for Gang of Six designs. “I’m for any credible plan that cuts the deficit.”
