Mixed Results from Debt Commission

After months of deliberation, President Obama's debt commission released its report last week. Officially named the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, the panel formed in February to develop solutions to our staggering national debt.

We didn't need a study to know that the national debt has reached crisis proportions. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the 2009 and 2010 deficits produced by the liberals running Congress were the highest the country has experienced since 1945. In just the past two years, annual deficits created by the big government policies of the Obama administration and Speaker Pelosi have added $3.1 trillion to the debt. That is equal to a rate of almost $5 billion per day.

While federal spending reached 23.8 percent of GDP in 2010, revenues dropped to just 14.9 percent of the economy. There is no question that this imbalance is unsustainable, and there should be no question that spending cuts are essential to bringing debt under control. In addition to being economically disastrous and fundamentally unfair, balancing the budget by increasing the tax burden is just not a viable option. The historical average for tax revenue is 18 percent; even in good economic times, tax revenue has never exceeded 20 percent in our history. The inescapable conclusion is that we must focus on the debt side of the equation and implement serious spending cuts and entitlement reforms.

To that end, the commission has returned some surprisingly bold recommendations. Some of the policies are controversial and some promising, but they all contribute to starting a conversation the federal government urgently needs to have. The plan proposes to cut $50 billion from the federal bureaucracy through pay freezes and job cuts, along with $100 billion each in both the defense budget and non-defense discretionary spending. This represents only a small portion of the massive federal budget, but it illustrates the gravity of our challenge.

The commission's proposals on taxes, however, are particularly controversial. The plan calls for tax revenues to reach a historically unprecedented 20.5 percent of the economy by raising taxes nearly $1 trillion from 2012 to 2020. According to analysis by the Heritage Foundation, that adds up to $8,000 for every household in America. The economy faces many problems right now, but oppressively low taxation isn't one of them. I'm certain very few Oklahomans would agree with the proposition that they aren't being taxed enough. Commission member Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who has submitted his own impressive budget blueprint, points out that the plan includes $2 in tax increases for every $1 in spending reduction.

Despite several weaknesses, the panel's recommendations on spending cuts are a good start, for which Sen. Coburn's strong leadership on the commission is undoubtedly responsible in large part. Washington has spent more than enough time on study and debate, and it is time for decisive action. The new Republican majority will waste no time in working to scale back the size of government and make the tough choices necessary to rein in the deficits that jeopardize America's economic future.

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