Thursday, December 2, 2010 | 11:06 a.m
Updated at 11:25 a.m. on December 2.
Two lawmakers on President Obama's bipartisan deficit commission -- Republican Sens. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Mike Crapo of Idaho -- said they will vote in favor of the report the panel released earlier this week. Meanwhile, another member, Republican Rep. Paul Ryan, said he will vote against it.
"Obviously, I'm not going to vote for it," said Ryan, the incoming House Budget Committee chairman, at a breakfast today hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.
However, the Wisconsin Republican praised the effort of the 18-member panel, led by Democrat Erskine Bowles and Republican Alan Simpson, as "a success."
"They advanced this conversation to the adult level that some of us have been struggling to get it to for a long time," he said.
But Ryan said he could not support the recommendations because they did not curb health-care-related costs to his satisfaction: "It not only did not address the elephant in the room, health care, it made it fatter." Ryan said the "biggest gap in this plan" is health care.
"I just don't think this thing has the ability to last in policy, and it simply buys us time. I'd rather fix the problem, with the Boomers starting to turn 65 this year, fix it once and for all so we can really get this thing fixed," he said. "But again, I don't want to be too critical of it because it's a good effort on Erskine's part and Alan's part and they've done a lot of good work."
To approve any recommendation, the panel must reach 14 votes.
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