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- iHaveNet.com: Politics
by Alex Kingsbury
President uses executive order to deal with a hot-button political issue
There's an old maxim in Washington that when politicians are either unable or unwilling to tackle a problem directly, they appoint a commission to give the issue more intensive study. So it was last week when President Obama created the
Commissions can be useful by taking ownership of politically unpopular ideas that neither political party could endorse in isolation, but they also are notoriously impotent in getting their recommendations enacted. That's why the president originally envisioned a panel with more teeth. But Democratic senators, and several from the
In the end, the president was forced to create the bipartisan group through executive order, which gives the commission considerably less political capital to get its final recommendations translated into action. A congressionally mandated commission would have meant a guaranteed vote on its proposals. The commission announced last week, cochaired by Alan Simpson, a former Republican senator, and Erskine Bowles, a Democrat who was
While the group's work will not be completed until December, the broad consensus among economists is as self-evident as it is politically perilous: Spending cuts and tax hikes will both be necessary parts of any successful scheme for long-term debt reduction. "The politics of dealing with chronic deficits is fraught with hard choices, and therefore it's treacherous to officeholders here in Washington," Obama said, noting that "as a consequence, nobody has been too eager to deal with it." Meanwhile, the problem is getting exponentially worse.
Amid the economic downturn, with tax revenue declining and government spending mounting, the scope of the budgeting problem is all the more staggering. Last month, the federal government's budget was nearly
While discretionary spending is a politically popular whipping boy, experts say the far more important issue is the expected growth of the big three entitlement programs:
But as the rejection of a congressionally mandated commission suggests, neither party is particularly keen on backing unpalatable solutions. Republicans, buoyed by the surging populism of the tea party protesters, are using government largess as a rhetorical cudgel with increasing effectiveness, while Democrats continue to claim the banner of defenders of popular government entitlement programs. Certainly, the eventual solution, whether it comes as a result of this panel or not, will have plenty for both parties to despise. But like it or not, the president noted while signing the executive order, "everything is on the table."
Available at Amazon.com:
The Political Fix: Changing the Game of American Democracy, from the Grassroots to the White House
AMERICAN POLITICS
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Obama Creates Commission to Shrink Deficit | Alex Kingsbury
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