Originally posted on Washington Wire
Sen. George Voinovich, the retiring Ohio Republican, will be meeting with President Barack Obama this morning with a single mission: To talk the president out of an executive order creating a commission to tackle the budget deficit.
The commission is expected to be the centerpiece of a fiscal 2011 budget blueprint, out Feb. 1, that will be swimming in red ink. Voinovich, along with more than a dozen other senators, wants to create the commission with legislation, not the stroke of a presidential pen. That way, the commissions mandate would have the force of law, and that mandate can force an up-or-down vote on the commissions recommendations in Congress. An executive order cannot force a vote, and therefore, the senator believes, will be toothless.
Hes going to drive home the need to do this legislatively, according to a source close to Voinovich.
It will be a tough sell. The White House is convinced such a commission cannot get through Congress. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.), House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D, Wis.) and House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D, N.Y.) have adamantly opposed what they see as yielding congressional authority to an appointed body. And Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R, Ky.) has begun expressing qualms about the commission legislation that Voinovich backs, written by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D, N.D.) and Sen. Judd Gregg (R, N.H.).