By David Lightman

McClatchy Newspapers

Oct. 25, 2011

Steve Bell, the senior director of the Economic Policy Project at Washington's Bipartisan Policy Center, thought the panel could "save" about $440 billion by assuming savings from winding down U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, and by changing how the government calculates the Consumer Price Index for certain benefits...

"The two caucuses appear to be far apart," said Bell, a former Senate Budget Committee staff director. "The only two questions that matter are whether we fundamentally restructure Medicare, and whether we raise revenues..."

No one is willing to handicap prospects for a supercommittee agreement with any confidence. "Maybe," Bell said, "they'll surprise me.

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Economic Policy Project