Cutting the national debt

A presidential commission studying ways to reduce the federal budget deficit is scheduled to vote Friday on a sweeping proposal that would cut spending, reduce services and overhaul the nation’s tax structure. The bipartisan commission’s co-chairmen officially put the plan before the panel Wednesday after vetting it for several weeks.

The proposal offered by the chairmen — Democrat Erskine Bowles, a former White House chief of staff, and former Sen. Alan Simpson, a Republican — notes that any solution to cutting and eventually eliminating a national debt that is more than $13 trillion will be “painful.” It will be.

Bowles and Simpson call for a wide range of cuts, including in Social Security, Medicare and the Defense Department. They suggest overhauling the tax code to reduce rates while eliminating many loopholes. And they also call for raising the gas tax to pay for roads.

The plan has been attacked from many sides, which isn’t surprising. It leaves few, if any, sacred cows untouched. In Congress, the plan has run into opposition, as members nitpick the specifics. But the plan may not make it to Congress. Under the presidential order that created the commission, 14 of the panel’s 18 members must vote for the plan for it to be submitted to Congress. And many of the 12 members of Congress on the commission are expected to vote against the proposal. That would undoubtedly derail the plan and progress on fighting the debt.

This is going to take political courage. One of the reasons the country finds itself in this situation is because politicians haven’t made the tough choices that need to be made. During the Bush administration, for example, the nation entered two wars, and the Republican Congress went on a spending spree — on credit. Republicans also pushed tax cuts, as they are doing now, but trickle-down economics doesn’t work — it has only added to the debt.

A draft of the commission plan notes that without action, the nation could be paying up to $1 trillion in interest on the debt in the next decade. That is unconscionable.

Reducing the national debt will take a shared sacrifice. Congress can’t expect this to be easy or necessarily palatable. Some members of Congress understand that. Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, and Sen. Judd Gregg, the committee’s ranking Republican who is retiring, endorsed the plan Wednesday. Both said they didn’t like parts of the proposal, but they didn’t let that stop their support. Conrad said the plan “represented a genuine bipartisan compromise, with both Democrats and Republicans making concessions.”

Bipartisanship may not be popular in the hyperpartisan environment in Washington, but it’s desperately needed. To cut the deficit, the nation will have to take decisive steps. Hopefully more members of Congress will follow Conrad and Gregg. As the report says, “After all the talk about debt and deficits, it is long past time for America’s leaders to put up or shut up.”

Indeed. Bowles and Simpson have proposed a solid plan. The commission and Congress should support it.