President Obama announced today that it had chosen SEIU’s Stern to serve on his deficit commission, formally dubbed the “National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.” Stern, will serve on the 18-member commission that also includes Alice Rivlin, the former Federal Reserve Vice Chair and senior fellow in the Economic Studies Program at the Brookings Institution, Honeywell International Inc. Chief Executive David Cote, and former Young & Rubicam Chief Executive Ann Fudge.
The commission “will make recommendations to Congress by December 1, 2010 to put the budget in primary balance so that all operations and programs for the federal government are paid for (achieving deficits of about 3 percent of GDP) by 2015 and to meaningfully improve the long-term fiscal outlook,” according to a White House statement.
The move to appoint Stern came something as a surprise, considering SEIU’s initial opposition to the debt commission when it was being considered in the Senate, but the labor leader has been involved at a number of White House summit meetings. His appointment has also sparked the expected response from conservative groups.
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