WHAT HAPPENED WHEN THE FISCAL SUMMIT STOPPED BEING POLITE AND STARTED GETTING REAL?

The speeches at today's fiscal summit were followed by small breakout sessions on health care, taxes, budget, contracting and procurement, and Social Security that brought together key administration staff -- Orszag on health care, say, and Summers on Social Security -- to talk with congressmen and outside advocates. The pool reports just emerged and are fairly detailed. important reading for wonks. I've copied them beneath the fold. But here are the parts that caught my eye.

On health care:

Baucus said he wanted to get at least 60 votes in the Senate, but maybe as many as 70 votes on a health care reform bill.

Dodd said he wants a bill through the Senate by Memorial Day.

Two members – Sen. Alexander and Rep. Castle – urged the group to take a close look at the Wyden-Bennett health care bill.

Dodd, I should note, is acting as Kennedy's deputy here. He speaks for the HELP Committee.

Social Security:

Summers said that health care has “overwhelming importance” in achieving “longterm budget control.” He said: “But Social Security is also crucial to the nation’s longterm fiscal health, and Social Security is our most important government program.” He essentially said – and this is paraphrase here -- that the downturn of the financial markets had diminished the political appetite for converting part of SS to private retirement accounts. In light of “the events in the market the last couple years, the sense of the need for government to take a core public responsibility for Social Security. . .has been strengthened, at least in many people’s minds. Though not perhaps all minds.”

Both Summers and Sperling said there would not be consensus in today’s session about how to fix the program. They also said the public was more receptive to the government making hard decisions necessary to keep SS from running out of money in the long run, because Americans are anxious about their private retirement savings and the value of their houses. Sperling said: “I think there may be a lot more openness than we thought in the past for people to have an honest discussion about the shared sacrifice necessary to have Social Security solvency. That this would be a sure thing they could count on, and they could count on for the next 50 to 75 years.”

The tax breakout began with...health care. Baucus took direct aim at the employer tax exemption:

Baucus led off. "Clearly, we all agree it's good we're doing this," he said, adding that "the only answer is a comprehensive solution, which means nothing 's off the table." He quickly dove into health care policy, saying the administration should look at the cost of excluding health care coverage from taxation, which he estimated at between $140 b and $200 b a year.

"One question is the degree to which we're willing to even look at health expenditures," Baucus said. "It's the biggest target. It should at least be looked at," he said, adding that he is not suggesting repeal but perhaps some limits.

More on the exemption in this post. Rest of the poll report -- which include not on ly the budget and procurement reports, but much more detail on taxes, health care, and Social Security -- below the fold.