Tax increases and spending cuts both promised by President Obama’s fiscal commission

Schakowsky said the government cannot “skimp” on its spending for education, health care, pensions, energy independence, infrastructure, medical research, and job creation.

“Bottom line, while we are committed to freeing our children and grandchildren from crippling debt, we must be just a committed to assuring that they are not ignorant, sick and unemployed,” she said.

But the fiscal and budget experts who addressed the commission were clear that both sides will have to make compromises.

“The magnitude of the required adjustments is so large that spending cuts will have to affect programs we all care about and benefit from and revenue increases will have to come from a wide swath of Americans,” Reischauer said.

“The budget is on a ruinous path and getting off that path involves far more significant policy changes than the American people are used to,” Penner said.

Bowles, for his part, sought to adjust the expectations of commission members who want to preserve full spending commitments to their causes.

He said there will be “no money” for education or jobs or infrastructure if the debt is not dealt with. But he also made clear that increasing taxes will be a significant focus of the commission, noting that working groups will be split into three focus areas: mandatory spending, discretionary spending and revenue reform.

Simpson, as usual, put it more bluntly in an interview after the meeting.

“Whatever you love in America you won’t get unless we get this under control,” he said.

One of the most important things that remained unclear at the end of the session is how the working groups will be structured.

“I honestly don’t know which working group I’m on and who is on it with me,” Ryan said in an interview afterward.

The working groups will be where the commission hashes out the most controversial aspects of the report it is required to submit by Dec. 1. The full commission will hold five more open meetings where the public and press will look to glean clues as to which direction it is headed.

But Simpson and Bowles emphasized the need for commission members not to leak to the media while their work is ongoing, and the president also said that his priority will be to keep the commission’s work a secret until the final report is ready.

“All of you, our friends in the media, will ask me and others once a week or once a day about what we’re willing to rule out or rule in,” said Obama, who promised during the presidential campaign not to raise income taxes on families making less than $250,000 a year.

“That’s an old Washington game and it’s one that has made it all but impossible in the past for people to sit down and have an honest discussion about putting our country on a more secure fiscal footing,” the president said. “We’re not playing that game. I’m not going to say what’s in. I’m not going to say what’s out. I want this commission to be free to do its work.”

At the end of the day, it is unclear how much weight the commission’s report will carry, since their recommendations are not binding on Congress and lawmakers are not even required to vote on their suggestions.

But it is expected that the president will use the report to try and push forward at least some of the ideas included.

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