Here’s a development that should cheer every American: In the countdown to Election Day, the federal budget deficit has become a hot campaign issue.
We’re thrilled. It’s wonderful to see our free-spending representatives finally get the message that people want them to stop spending.
It looks likely that there will be many more deficit hawks headed to Washington after Nov. 2. Lo and behold, President Barack Obama is signaling that he wants to be a deficit hawk too.
Obama signed an executive order in February that established a bipartisan deficit commission charged with making the “tough decisions” to bring spending and revenue into line. This represents a historic opportunity for Republicans and Democrats to articulate a rational plan for balancing the federal budget by 2015. The commission is scheduled to meet Nov. 10 and Dec. 1, then issue its findings.
We’ve just seen the British tackle the same problem head-on, ushering in a new era of austerity with drastic spending cuts and less-drastic tax increases. Even France is getting used to the fact that free-lunch entitlement programs must be paid for eventually.
So what’s wrong with us? We know that if we do nothing, the cost of Medicare and Medicaid will be ruinous. We know the Social Security system will be much less painful to fix now than years from now when it’s on the brink of insolvency. We know that if we keep spending more than we take in, then our children — and probably their children — will inherit a crippling national debt.
With the election less than a week away, it’s obvious that everyday Americans recognize these problems need to be dealt with, which brings us to the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.
The latest rumblings about the deficit commission have been ominous. There’s talk that its 18 members won’t reach agreement, and may instead issue separate reports along partisan lines. A report could come only from the co-chairmen, former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson of Wyoming and ex-Clinton administration chief of staff Erskine Bowles. A recent trial balloon floated in The Wall Street Journal suggested the group will focus on reducing the mortgage-interest deduction and other tax breaks, but ignore the need to curb entitlement spending.
It’ll be a whopping lost opportunity if this group, which includes Sen. Dick Durbin and Rep. Jan Schakowsky, fails to deliver a sensible, bipartisan plan. The president has given this public-private panel a bully pulpit, a chance to knock some sense into Congress.
Voters look like they’re about to make a lot of politicians pay for running up federal spending and borrowing. Some politicians will survive on Nov. 2. The survivors might hope that voters will get happy before 2012. But voters said they want change in 2006 — they dumped Republican control of the House. They said it in 2008 — changing control of the White House. They’re going to do it again this year — most likely dumping Democratic control of the House.
When will Washington get the message?
The deficit commission can start answering voters’ demands. Leaders of Congress have pledged to bring the commission’s recommendations to a vote — if the commission can find broad agreement. This could be the nation’s best chance to cut a deal on deficit reduction. Mr. Durbin, Ms. Schakowsky, help make it happen.
