'Gang of Six:' $3 in Cuts for Every $1 Raised

The budget plan the bipartisan Gang of Six ultimately devises will include $3 of spending cuts for every dollar it raises in additional tax revenues, Mark Warner tells Bloomberg, promising cuts in health care, defense, agriculture, and other domestic programs, along with changes to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. The plan will generate revenue by reducing tax breaks.

The plan would, for example, limit deductions on charitable giving, and reduce the size of mortgages on which interest can be written off from $1 million to $500,000. The plan will “have enough pain in there that everybody’s going to be mad, a bit,” Warner warned constituents last week. But he tells Bloomberg that a bipartisan approach is necessary, because both Paul Ryan and President Obama’s plans contain “poison pills” the other side won’t accept. (More Mark Warner stories.)