WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 (UPI) -- The U.S. Senate Tuesday turned aside President Barack Obama's proposal to create a bipartisan deficit reduction task force with broad powers.
The proposal gained only 53 votes in the chamber, short of the 60 needed to overcome a threatened Republican filibuster, The Washington Post reported.
Under the proposal, the bipartisan commission would have been granted powers to recommend spending cuts on entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security and to propose tax code changes, which would be submitted to Congress for an up-or-down vote.
But conservatives wary of tax increases and liberals concerned about social spending cuts teamed up to deny the proposal the required votes, the newspaper said.
The Post noted the proposal was included in Democratic-sponsored legislation to raise the United States' legal debt ceiling to $1.9 trillion, which is needed to cover U.S. spending commitments through the end of year.
The nay vote on the deficit commission came as the Congressional Budget Office estimated the U.S. deficit would reach $1.35 trillion.
