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**Written by Doug Powers

Hey, whose side is this “fiscal commission” on anyway?

The chairmen of President Obama’s fiscal commission sparked a political firestorm Wednesday with the early release of a report proposing sweeping changes to Social Security, Medicare and the tax code.

The plan would reduce the deficit by nearly $4 trillion over the next decade by making dramatic spending cuts and overhauling the tax code by wiping out deductions, such as the popular tax break on mortgage interest.

Labor unions and liberal Democrats lit into the preliminary proposal, which the two chairmen touted as the first serious plan to tackle the country’s growing debt.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said it was “simply unacceptable.”
[...]
Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), a commission member, balked at the heavy emphasis on spending cuts in the plan.

Co-Chairman Erskine Bowles, a Democrat, said that about 75 percent of the proposed deficit reduction came from spending cuts and 25 percent from “the revenue side.”

When asked Wednesday afternoon whether the 75 percent-to-25 percent ratio of spending cuts to revenue increases was too titled toward reducing spending, Durbin said: “To me it is.”

The “denialcrats” were hoping for a fiscal commission whose recommendations were all “raise taxes” and/or “increase spending,” but maybe that’ll happen next as soon as the Tea Party hangover subsides.

Either way, Dick Durbin need not worry — he’s got a movie career to keep him going.

The fiscal commission’s preliminary report also recommends crap-canning the freaky “safe schools czar’s office” and to cut “voluntary” United Nations funding.

The commission was also going to propose saving money by not having a full-time private jet for the Speaker of the House, but John Boehner already took care of that.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe