Bowles also said Congress had to be ready to accept the commission’s findings. “What we do is not so hard to figure out; it’s the political consequences of doing it that make it really tough,” he said.
Simpson said the depth of the federal government’s spending imbalance limited the help it could provide for strained state budgets. “The pig is dead,” said Simpson, referring to so-called pork-barrel spending that Congress directs to states. “There’s no bacon.”