The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, launched by President Barack Obama to find ways to cut federal deficit spending, has released its recommendations. It suggests making sweeping cuts to Medicare, simplifying the tax code, increasing the age for receiving Social Security benefits to 69, slashing a third of military bases, eliminating earmarks and reducing the number of employees in the federal government by 10 percent. The Commission says its recommendations would save $3.8 trillion.

The Commission suggests folding the Small Business Administration into the Department of Commerce. Although the list of cuts was just released a few hours ago, criticism on eliminating the SBA in order to reduce government spending has already started to pop up.

"The Small Business Administration (SBA) is the only federal agency that exists for the expressed purpose of assisting America’s chief job creators, its 27 million small businesses. Trying to save money by combining the SBA with the U.S. Department of Commerce not only has the potential to be devastating to the nation’s small businesses, but it is exactly what small businesses don’t need in these difficult economic times," says Lloyd Chapman, president of the American Small Business League.. [via California’s CVBT]

Dow Jones Newswires reports that the outgoing Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi [D-CA], declared that the commission's recommendations were "simply unacceptable."

The Committee is co-chaired by former head of the Small Business Administration Erskine Bowles (D) and retired Wyoming Senator Alan Simpson (R). The proposal needs to have the approval of 14 of the 18 members in the Committee before it can be introduced into the House and Senate in the process of becoming law.

Source: http://www.bluemaumau.org/obama_commission_suggests_folding_sba_commerce_dept