you said that your task force with senator pete domenici had come up for some version of premium support. can you define that with regard to medicare? >> yes. on the version that we support would say the following. seniors after a certain date would get a choice whether they stay in ordinary fee-for-service medicare or go to a new exchange on which they could choose a plan and would be competition among health plans and the health plan would be compensated by medicare or risk adjusted way this is a vulture you go out and shop around. but, and this is where the scoring comes in. the zero original amount of the subsidy for medicare would be the same whether you stay in the fee-for-service or go to the exchange, but it would increase on the at a defined rate. the rate we chose was gdp plus 1% that's a little lower than the current increase fox the competition on the exchange has brought the cost down within that and if it didn't whether you were in the exchange or in the fee-for-service system you would have to pay an additional premium, could be means tested premium it would be a premium a

senator pete domenici, the co-chair of the domenici task force. the former head of aarp. the former member of congress and president and c.e.o. of american gas association. congressman sprat, former chairman of the house budget committee. and charlie cobb, the head of c.e.d. what we thought we would discuss in this panel is sort of bring in the dmpt kinds of special interests that are at play, both in helping to move this issue forward and sometimes standing in the way, sort of protecting different areas which make it harder to have a big budget deal and how we might move that forward. and as well, what the public's response is. so many of these people have been out there talking with people, hearing how they respond to different approaches, different proposals, and so that's what we hope to get out of this sure to be rich discussion. pete, if you want to toss out the first couple of questions. >> let's go big, first of all work our group in terms of the public. given the debate we've seen over the bowles-simpson plan, proposals from the president, proposal on the house s

whitman and bob rubin, christie roemer, george shultz, pete peterson, david cody, alice rivlin, pete domenicie two former co-chairman of the fiscal commission from erskin bowles and alan simpson. i want to quickly mention that right now there's an awful lot of focus both on the need for an economic recovery plan and a deficit and debt plan. and really putting in place a multi-year plan to gradually brings down the debt so it stabilizes the share of economy is one of the most important things we can do as an economic growth and recovery plan. without more stability to the business environment, it would lead fiscal space up front for there to be more effort to create jobs and grow the economy and would tackle the long-term drivers of the debt in a way that i don't think will be able to be addressed until we go big and put together a full plan. so if you look at what's happened over the past month, we've had numerous deadlines we almost had a government shutdown. we almost had a government default and each time the kind of squeeze out with the plan that moved the ball forward but it was never bi

you said that your task force with senator pete domenici had come up for some version of premium support. can you define that with regard to medicare? >> yes. on the version that we support would say the following. seniors after a certain date would get a choice whether they stay in ordinary fee-for-service medicare or go to a new exchange on which they could choose a plan and would be competition among health plans and the health plan would be compensated by medicare or risk adjusted way this is a vulture you go out and shop around. but, and this is where the scoring comes in. the zero original amount of the subsidy for medicare would be the same whether you stay in the fee-for-service or go to the exchange, but it would increase on the at a defined rate. the rate we chose was gdp plus 1% that's a little lower than the current increase fox the competition on the exchange has brought the cost down within that and if it didn't whether you were in the exchange or in the fee-for-service system you would have to pay an additional premium, could be means tested premium it would be a premium a

pete domenici. dave mccurdy president of american gas association. former chairman of the committee and charles kolb. sometimes people can stand in the way to have it harder to make a big budget deal. what is the public's response? many of these people have been out there talking to people and listening to how they respond to different proposals. but that is something we hope to get out of this rich discussion. if you want to talk about the first couple of questions? >> in terms of the public, given the debate we have seen over the some symbols -- simpson bowles and others, is the american public ready for what you will come up with, potentially $1.50 of a cut, or the idea of going big. andy, i will start with you, are the american people ready for the stock price? [unintelligible] >> they are tired of it. it has gone on too long. we needed to the issues important to them, they are more concerned about their particular area, so i think they are as ready as they will ever be. this is about making the tough choices and moving on. >> senator domenici, i

you said that your task force with senator pete domenici had come up for some version of premium support. can you define that with regard to medicare? >> yes. on the version that we support would say the following. seniors after a certain date would get a choice whether they stay in ordinary fee-for-service medicare or go to a new exchange on which they could choose a plan and would be competition among health plans and the health plan would be compensated by medicare or risk adjusted way this is a vulture you go out and shop around. but, and this is where the scoring comes in. the zero original amount of the subsidy for medicare would be the same whether you stay in the fee-for-service or go to the exchange, but it would increase on the at a defined rate. the rate we chose was gdp plus 1% that's a little lower than the current increase fox the competition on the exchange has brought the cost down within that and if it didn't whether you were in the exchange or in the fee-for-service system you would have to pay an additional premium, could be means tested premium it would be a premium a

we have been joined in this effort by bob rubin's, christie whitman, pete peterson, dave cody, pete domenicion, judd gregg, bob kerrey, and most importantly, the two former co-chairman, erskine bowles and the house and sen. -- and alan simpson. putting a plan in place to stabilize the economy is one of the most important things that we can do as an economic growth and recovery plan, adding more stability to the business environment, leaving space up front to create jobs and grow the economy, tackling long-term drivers of the debt in a way that will not be able to be addressed until we go back again put together a full plan. looking at what has happened over the past month, we have had numerous deadlines. we almost had a government shutdown at a government default. each time we had a squeaky plan that moved the ball forward that was never enough. we kept going to the lowest denominator. what we have done is bring together a bipartisan and diverse group to urge the committee to go big, to the highest level, putting a fixed. we will talk to erskine bowles and alan simpson about why they are len