“Pray for the Gang of Six.”
That’s what former Sen. Alan Simpson, who co-chaired the White House’s commission on deficit reduction last year, told two reporters Wednesday after President Obama outlined his own, rather vague, plan for bringing the budget closer to balance.
The Gang of S
ix is a group of senators, three Democrats and three Republicans, who have been working the past five months to forge a plan that might not only reduce the deficit by at least $4 trillion over the next decade, but might also have a chance of winning congressional approval. It’s thought that it would resemble the commission’s blueprint, which was sobering and realistic.
Simpson, a Republican who helped craft the commission’s approach to overhauling the tax code and spending programs, including the two that pose the most serious fiscal threat — Medicare and Medicaid — seemed to imply frustration with the larger debate so far.
There was little reason for optimism last week. Partisan accusations flew after (and during) the president’s speech, and again after House Republicans passed their 2012 proposal along party lines Friday. Republican House Speaker John Boehner accused the president of advocating “more taxing, more spending and more borrowing.” White House spokesman Jay Carney said that by raising health-care costs for seniors and cutting taxes for the wealthy, “the House Republican plan places the burden of debt reduction on those who can least afford it.”
As Simpson and his commission co-chair, Democrat Erskine Bowles, noted in their report last year, an effective solution is going to have to include major spending cuts, especially to Medicare, Medicaid and defense, along with net increases in tax revenue. Stemming the enormous tide of red ink both parties have enabled will require sacrifice by all Americans, and an uncharacteristic willingness by political leaders to break with party orthodoxy.
That’s why Simpson’s hopes lie with the Senate’s Gang of Six (Democrats Mark Warner of Virginia, Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Richard Durbin of Illinois, and Republicans Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Mike Crapo of Idaho).
It’ll take political courage. The GOP members have taken considerable internal heat already for speaking the truth on taxes, admitting that they must be part of the ultimate solution. Likewise, the three Democrats are under fire from the left for noting that entitlement spending has the nation on a path to fiscal ruin, and that Medicare and Medicaid spending must be reigned in.
The road to solvency won’t be easy, but it’s also not a complete mystery. It’s not so much a matter of what must be done, but whether elected officials can muster the political will to lead the way.
Pray for the Gang of Six.
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