Mark Schmitt explains how a bipartisan commission to bring down the deficit could be a good thing:
For those of us who had a reasonably close view of the early months of the Clinton administration, certain parallels to the current political situation are eerie. One is this: The price of a landmark domestic accomplishment seems to involve turning next to the federal deficit, particularly reducing spending on Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security — aka “entitlements.” In order to obtain the 50th vote on his 1993 budget reconciliation bill — which created new programs such as direct student loans, and realigned federal spending and tax policy toward progressive goals — President Bill Clinton had to promise the quixotic, self-important Democratic senator Bob Kerrey that he would create a commission on entitlement spending.
Today the pressure comes from Blue Dog Democrats in the House, Senate Budget Committee Chair Kent Conrad, and the enormously well-funded advocacy infrastructure constructed to warn about deficits, with the Peter G. Peterson Foundation at its center. They argue the political process itself cannot make the choices needed to deal with long-term budget deficits. Reducing the deficit requires an extra-political structure, such as a bipartisan commission, whose recommendations would be voted up or down in Congress rather than horse-traded away.
