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Sunday, February 7, 2010

Deficit hawks?
President Barack Obama leaves the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2010, for a trip to New Hampshire to push one of his State of the Union proposals

President Obama is right to forge ahead with a bipartisan commission that will try to reduce deficits, after too many senators bailed on the idea.

Obama plans to create a panel by executive order to suggest budget reforms that would slow the rise of the national debt.
 

This effort is needed because the government’s red ink tops $1 trillion annually, and long-term deficits of entitlement programs keep growing.
 

Obama’s step comes after the Senate rejected a stronger proposal that would have required Congress to vote on a commission’s recommendations. While the presidential panel will make suggestions for trimming deficits, there’s no guarantee Congress will vote on those proposals.


The Senate proposal had something that’s a rarity in Washington these days — bipartisan support. Sixteen Republicans, 36 Democrats, and one independent voted in favor of a fiscal commission. That’s 53 votes out of 100. But the obstructionist GOP nowadays insists on a 60-vote supermajority for anything to advance in the Senate, so the measure died.
 

The proposal could have received 60 votes, but seven Republicans who cosponsored the measure ended up voting against it. These profiles in weasel-hood belong to Sens. Robert Bennett of Utah, Sam Brownback of Kansas, Mike Crapo of Idaho, John Ensign of Nevada, Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, James Inhofe of Oklahoma, and John McCain of Arizona. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky spoke in favor of the commission but voted against it.
 

The Philadelphia region could have supplied nearly half of the votes needed to pass the proposal, but Democratic Sens. Arlen Specter and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey all voted against it.
A spokesman said Casey believed the commission “would have threatened programs that older Pennsylvanians rely on,” such as Medicare and Medicaid.
 

Specter said he was concerned about delegating “Congress’ core constitutional responsibilities on matters like Social Security, Medicare, and revenue.” That would be a valid concern, if lawmakers ever displayed a spine about controlling deficits. But they keep spending more while cutting taxes because it gets them elected.
 

Specter argues that Congress should reduce deficits in its normal duties, which lawmakers refer to as “regular order.” But a sponsor of the fiscal-commission proposal, Sen. Judd Gregg (R., N.H.), spoke the plain truth when he said, “We know regular order does not work.”
 

The House on Thursday<NO1>2/4<NO> did give final passage to “pay-as-you-go” budget rules already approved by the Senate that should limit future deficits. But these rules don’t reduce current debt. And lawmakers exempted some big items, such as middle-class tax cuts, from the requirement to find offsetting revenue.


By year’s end, the country’s public debt will exceed 60 percent of the annual value of the national economy. The European Union denies countries entry into its economic partnership if they reach that level of irresponsibility.
 

For decades, Congress has shirked its responsibility to make hard choices on entitlements and annual spending. A proposal that pushes lawmakers to begin doing the right thing is a step in the right direction.
 
Posted by Inquirer editorial board @ 2:00 AM  Permalink | Post a comment
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