Ex-Clinton Aide Named Executive Director of Fiscal Commission
WASHINGTON--Bruce Reed, a former Clinton administration official who now heads the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, has been tapped to be executive director of President Barack Obama's fiscal commission.</br></br>Mr. Reed's appointment, announced Thursday in a statement by panel co-chairs Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, rounds out the bipartisan commission, whose 18 sitting members have already been named by Mr. Obama and congressional leaders from both parties.</br></br>The group, created in an executive order last month, has been given the task of finding ways to bring down the U.S.'s soaring deficit, with a goal of slashing the budget gap to around 3% of gross domestic product from its projected level of around 11% this year. The panel will send its recommendations, likely to be a mix of tax increases and cuts to federal benefit programs Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security and other federal spending, to Congress by Dec. 1.</br></br>Mr. Reed was President Bill Clinton's top domestic-policy adviser, helping to write the 1996 welfare-reform bill and enact the administration's education agenda. More recently, he co-authored a book with Rahm Emanuel, Mr. Obama's chief of staff.</br></br>"The Commission will benefit from Bruce's years of experience in public policy to help us complete our challenging and crucial work," Mr. Simpson said.