Reply #3: For Boehner, Lofty Budget Goals Checked by Reality [View All]

[Why Syzygy]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/11/us/politics/11boehner.html?_r=3&ref=politics

WASHINGTON — At a private meeting about deficit reduction at the White House last week, Speaker John A. Boehner told his fellow Congressional leaders and President Obama that he did not spend 20 years working his way up to the top job on Capitol Hill just for the cachet of the title — he wanted to accomplish something big.

So he and the president pursued an ambitious plan that would have reduced spending by as much as $4 trillion over 10 years. It was a transformative proposal, with the potential to improve the ugly deficit picture by shrinking the size of government, overhauling the tax code and instituting consensus changes to shore up Medicare and even Social Security. It was a once-in-a-decade opening. ...