Deficit
Give problem to a commission Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad of North Dakota and the panel’s senior Republican, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, are floating the idea of a bipartisan commission to take on the problem of the federal deficit.
That deficit in fiscal 2009 was an unsustainable $1.4 trillion, a post-World War II record. And although that may ease some in the coming decade with economic recovery, there is no serious relief in sight.
Conrad and Gregg’s idea is picking up support in Congress. It has already attracted a dozen senators of both parties who say creation of the commission is the price of their votes on increasing the debt ceiling. That ceiling, now $12.1 trillion, must be periodically raised if the government is to keep on, as it must, borrowing money. That ceiling is due to be reached sometime next month.
Now the idea of a commission has caught on with the White House. If so, it is a welcome recognition that the Obama administration cannot keep on dismissing the deficit as a problem it inherited from President George W. Bush.
“For the White House,” noted The Wall Street Journal, “establishing a commission would show that the Obama administration is serious about tackling the deficit while postponing any real moves until after the 2010 elections.”
The voters may have a lot to say about who runs the next Congress, but no matter whom they elect the worsening problem of the deficit will remain unless something is done starting with next year’s budget.
One issue to be worked out is whether the commission should be a creature of Congress or, as the White House not surprisingly prefers, appointed by the president.
The preference here is to go the congressional route. Although the lawmakers had lots of help from the Bush and Obama White Houses, the deficit is Congress’ own doing.
The Constitution gives Congress alone the power to tax and spend. The problem started with Congress and it will have to be solved there.
Commissions work best when there is general agreement on a solution to a thorny problem, but no one wants to take the heat for proposing it. There is no getting around the fact that any serious deficit reduction will require some combination of spending curbs and tax increases.
Scripps Howard News Service