IT'S A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION...::

Obama to name budget-deficit panel (Associated Press, January 20, 2010)

Key details remain to be worked out and the agreement is tentative, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said. The deficit panel, patterned after a 1982 group that came up with a successful plan to strengthen Social Security, would comprise 10 Democrats and eight Republicans. It would take 14 members to report a plan -- requiring bipartisanship -- which would guarantee a vote in both the House and Senate. It's unclear who would choose the GOP members, but for the panel to have credibility with Republicans, GOP leaders probably would have input.

The idea behind the commission is that it is the best way to get policymakers to make the politically arduous decisions on raising taxes and curbing the growth of government programs like Medicare.

But lawmakers warned that there's no guarantee the commission could even agree on a plan in an election year. And even if it did, it's not certain that Congress could pass it.

Budget hawks would win a so-called pay-as-you-go law, which would make it far more difficult for lawmakers to run up the deficit with new tax cuts and benefit programs.

Under pay-as-you-go, if offsetting cuts or revenue hikes are not found to pay for new policies, across-the-board spending cuts would hit selected programs such as farm subsidies and Medicare.

...but to be credible it will need Volcker and Greenspan as co-chairs.

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 20, 2010 7:06 AM