Rossputin.com Rational Thinking About Our World

I don’t frequently congratulate Democrat Senator Mark Udall, but his annoucement on Wednesday that he is “cosponsoring legislation to create a special commission to find ways to bring down the nation’s debt” as well as working to implement a presidential line-item veto are welcome news.

Udall also said he will not support increasing the debt limit until a plan is in place whereby the Senate can at least be led to the trough of fiscal responsibility.  This is an especially large threat against his own party leadership given stories that Harry Reid wants to increase the limit by $1.8 TRILLION now so that they don’t have to act again on the debt limit before the 2010 elections.  As the Politico notes, $1.8 trillion is “nearly twice what had been assumed in last spring’s budget resolution for the 2010 fiscal year.”

A sudden interest in spending reductions by a handful of Democrats and Republicans working together may also embolden health care “reform” fence-sitters like Blanche Lincoln and Ben Nelson to vote against the Reid-Pelosi-Obama plan, whether it comes down with a “public option” or some other mechanism which represents a distinction without a difference.

According to a press release by Senator Udall’s office:

Under the Bipartisan Task Force for Responsible Fiscal Action Act of 2009, an 18-member commission would review the entire federal budget and make recommendations for long-term fiscal sustainability, with specific spending cuts, program changes, and a mandate that Congress vote on those recommendations.

The commission would be made up of the Treasury Secretary, another appointee from the Administration, and 16 lawmakers - eight currently serving Democrats, and eight currently serving Republicans. Before any recommendations could be submitted to Congress, 14 of the 18 members would be required to sign off. Both the commission’s report would be due and congressional action required soon after the November 2010 elections, so as to take as much political posturing out of the process as possible. Congress would then take an up-or-down vote on the recommendations without amendments. Final passage would require a 3/5 majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.

As he is a liberal Democrat, Udall can’t get everything right. In his speech on the Senate floor, he said that part of the cause of the deficit was “tax cuts that did not grow the economy". Of course, that’s utterly false, not to mention the fact that the government does not have an inherent right to your money; cutting taxes versus raising taxes are not morally equivalent, regardless of your opinion of the economic effect.

I don’t love the commission being so political, with no participants who are not elected politicians or direct employes of an elected politician.  But the idea is a step in the right direction, not least for reminding Democratic leadership that not all members of their caucus are eager to see their political futures ended by big spending, high taxes, and a complete lack of understanding that the American people really are fiscally conservative.