Senate rejects Obama plan to create commission on federal deficit

The Washington Post reports:

The Senate on Tuesday rejected a plan to create a bipartisan commission to tackle the nation's budget problems this year, leaving it up to President Obama to create such a panel by executive order.

The commission would have had broad powers to recommend changes to the tax code and cut spending on entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare. Its recommendations, due after the November elections, would have been guaranteed an up-or-down vote in both chambers of Congress before the year is out.

But the measure won just 53 votes in the Senate, not enough to overcome a threatened filibuster.