17.05.12

( swong@politico.com or @scottwongDC)

With assists from Jonathan Allen and Kevin Robillard

HUDDLE EXCLUSIVE: REID SPURNS LIEBERMAN’S DEFICIT PLAN -- Sen. Joe Lieberman’s deficit reduction plan may be dead on arrival before he even gets a chance to formally unveil it.

Senate aides tell Huddle that Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) made it clear last week he’s not a fan of the plan and won’t allow it to move forward – a blow to the Connecticut independent who had planned a big rollout of the legislation Tuesday after he previews it to reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast.

“Reid let folks know that he doesn’t want this, and he’s not going to let it happen,” one aide said.

Lieberman, who is retiring next year, has been aggressively seeking out Democratic and Republican co-sponsors for his bill that would create an expedited “process” for Congress to vote on at least $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction from the Simpson-Bowles fiscal commission proposal or a comparable plan by next March. Following the collapse of the supercommittee last month, Lieberman’s plan would require a second bipartisan group of 12 lawmakers to propose specific deficit reduction measures that would get an up-or-down vote in both chambers, prompting critics to deride the proposal as “Supercommittee II.

Source: Politico