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Obama's Solution to Record Deficit: Study it

February 22, 2010
Weekly Columns

When faced with a $212 billion budget deficit in 1985, President Reagan proposed 245 specific cuts to reduce unnecessary government spending. Having created a 2010 budget deficit of $1.6 trillion, President Obama’s response is to form a debt commission to study the issue.

The “National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform” the president created through executive order last week is even more futile and toothless than it sounds. The commission will have no authority whatsoever to enact spending cuts. Rather, the panel will release recommendations that Democratic congressional leaders are under no obligation to consider. Allegedly bipartisan, the commission will be made up of 18 members, 12 of whom will be nominated by Democrats. Perhaps most frustrating of all, the commission is not scheduled to release its recommendations until December 1, 2010 – after almost another full year of runaway spending by House and Senate liberals.

This new commission is exactly the kind of political gimmick with which Americans are justifiably fed up. The age-old Washington tradition of forming "blue-ribbon" commissions to deal with problems has become a national joke for good reason: Most such committees are all talk and no action. This is definitely the case with President Obama’s new commission and, frankly, with the president's fiscal policy in general. It’s perfectly obvious that the key to bringing the budget under control is to reduce wasteful spending and reform entitlement programs. We hardly need a commission and a year of reflection to figure this out. Yet a new commission and more delay is exactly what the Obama administration is proposing.

The president may pay lip service to the idea of fiscal responsibility, but he has shown no interest in making the tough choices necessary to rein in government spending. Instead of appointing commissions, President Obama should be taking concrete steps to slash spending immediately. Under a 1974 law, presidents have the authority to submit specific proposals to cut current spending. Reagan’s rescissions in 1985 are just a portion of the 1,178 instances in which presidents from both parties have suggested rescissions since the law was enacted. House Republicans have urged President Obama to use his rescission authority and have pledged to submit any proposed spending cut for a vote in Congress. But none has been put forward. Instead of holding votes on policies to reduce spending, congressional liberals have voted twice in the past two months to increase the national debt limit – once by $290 billion and most recently by $1.9 trillion.

Political pundits like to say that spending cuts are difficult to enact because voters do not want government programs to be eliminated. If this theory was ever true, it’s not the case now. The American people are keenly aware of our national debt and are demanding action to stop the growth of government. Conservatives in Congress have presented serious plans to reduce spending and are ready to provide bipartisan support for spending cuts if President Obama will propose any. With both popular opinion and bipartisan support aligned in favor of spending cuts, there has never been a better time for spending reform. And with record deficits threatening our economic security, there has never been a greater need. It is my hope that President Obama and congressional Democrats will heed the calls for real spending cuts without waiting a year for the recommendations of a powerless commission.
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