| schema:text
| - Stand up for the facts!
Our only agenda is to publish the truth so you can be an informed participant in democracy.
We need your help.
I would like to contribute
Chris Christie says Barack Obama failed to support solutions of deficit reduction commission
With Republicans across the country clamoring for Gov. Chris Christie to run for president, the governor on Tuesday cited various reasons why the administration of President Barack Obama has been a failure.
One example is how the president failed to back up the recommendations of his own deficit reduction commission, Christie said in a high-profile speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif.
"Because each and every time the president lets a moment to act pass him by, his failure is our failure too," Christie said. "The failure to stand up for the bipartisan debt solutions of the Simpson-Bowles Commission, a report the president asked for himself."
PolitiFact New Jersey investigated whether Obama failed to "stand up for the bipartisan debt solutions of the Simpson-Bowles Commission," and found that Christie is not entirely right.
The president did not fully embrace the commission’s recommendations at the outset, but Obama later outlined deficit reduction measures similar to those proposed by the commission.
Even the commission’s co-chairs -- former White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles under President Bill Clinton, and former Republican U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson -- have said so.
"We are encouraged that the President has embraced a balanced, comprehensive approach to deficit reduction similar to that outlined in the Fiscal Commission report," Bowles and Simpson said in an April 13 press release.
Christie spokesman Kevin Roberts argued that the statement from Bowles and Simpson show "that they praise a similar approach – which isn’t the same as saying he has supported their recommendations."
"To date, the President has not endorsed the recommendations as proposed by his own commission," Roberts said in an email.
Now, let’s explain the commission’s history and Obama’s responses to its proposals.
Obama established the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform in February 2010. The president asked the bipartisan panel to recommend measures that would address the nation’s debt problem.
In December, the commission released its final report, which included dozens of proposals to cut discretionary spending, reform the tax code and Social Security and rein in health care costs, among other measures.
According to a previous ruling from PolitiFact National, Obama later proposed deficit reduction measures similar to those recommended by the commission.
Jason Peuquet, a policy analyst with the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, told us Obama’s deficit reduction plan from April incorporated many of the broad principles of the commission’s recommendations, but was mostly devoid of specifics.
Obama has fleshed out some of those broad principles in a deficit reduction plan unveiled earlier this month, according to Peuquet.
Referring to Christie’s statement, Peuquet said: "It seems to not quite give the president enough credit for things he’s done recently."
Alice Rivlin, a member of the commission and former director of the Office of Management and Budget under Clinton, said she was disappointed that the president didn't endorse the commission's recommendations immediately, but agreed that Obama later embraced some of its proposals.
A former policy adviser to Clinton said Obama has "approached the report very carefully."
"He’s kept it at arms’ length," said Bill Galston, now a senior fellow at Brookings.
Obama is "not exactly rejecting it," Galston said, but "not exactly embracing it either."
During negotiations over raising the debt ceiling, Obama didn't offer exactly the proposals in the commission's report, but "he went much of the way there," said Dean Baker, a liberal economist and co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
Chris Edwards, an economist with the libertarian Cato Institute, said it’s a fair assessment that Obama did nothing with the commission’s report, but said the president has another opportunity to implement recommendations when introducing the federal budget in February.
Edwards noted that the commission’s report contained some politically unpopular moves that might explain why Obama didn’t pursue some of the recommendations, such as raising the Social Security retirement age.
Our ruling
Christie claimed Obama has failed to stand up for the solutions proposed by his own deficit reduction commission. It is true that the president did not fully embrace the commission’s recommendations in the immediate months following its December report.
But since then, Obama has outlined deficit reduction measures similar to the commission’s recommendations. That’s why the governor is wrong to imply that Obama has done nothing with the commission’s proposals.
We rate the statement Mostly False.
To comment on this ruling, go to NJ.com.
Featured Fact-check
https://www.sharethefacts.co/share/4662f0d2-a5c5-4af0-b172-032b3a2d545a
Read About Our Process
Our Sources
Gov. Chris Christie’s speech at the Reagan Library, Sept. 27, 2011
PolitiFact, John Boehner says Obama "took exactly none of his own deficit reduction commission’s ideas," April 28, 2011
National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, "The Moment of Truth" (final report of the commission), December 2010
PolitiFact,FACTSHEET: Reducing the national debt, Nov. 12, 2010
White House, Remarks by The President Establishing The National Commission On Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, Feb. 18, 2010
White House, Executive Order -- National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, Feb. 18, 2010
White House, Statement by the President on the Work of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, Dec. 3, 2010
White House, Remarks by the President Before Meeting with Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, April 14, 2011
Interview with Bill Galston, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, Sept. 28, 2011
Interview with Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Sept. 28, 2011
Phone and email interviews with Jason Peuquet,a policy analyst with The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Sept. 28, 2011
Email interview with Alice Rivlin, a member of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, Sept. 28, 2011
White House, Fact Sheet: Living Within Our Means and Investing in the Future - The President’s Plan for Economic Growth and Deficit Reduction, Sept. 19, 2011
The American Presidency Project, Barack Obama: The President’s News Conference, Feb. 15, 2011
The Washington Post, There's still hope for dealing with our debt challenges, Feb. 20, 2011
Email interview with Michael Drewniak and Kevin Roberts, spokesmen for Gov. Chris Christie, Sept. 28, 2011
Moment of Truth Project, Bowles, Simpson react to the President's deficit reduction framework, April 13, 2011
Phone interview with Chris Edwards, an economist with the Cato Institute, Sept. 28, 2011
The Washington Post, President Obama's budget kicks the hard choices further down the road, Feb. 15, 2011
The Christian Science Monitor, Why the budget deficit is so hard for Congress to shrink, Feb. 22, 2011
The Washington Post, Obama announces framework for cutting deficit by $4 trillion over 12 years, April 13, 2011
Browse the Truth-O-Meter
More by Erin O'Neill
Chris Christie says Barack Obama failed to support solutions of deficit reduction commission
Support independent fact-checking.
Become a member!
In a world of wild talk and fake news, help us stand up for the facts.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)