Debt reduction plan offers truly legitimate blueprint

Published 9:59 am Thursday, November 18, 2010

Early in their draft proposal, the co-chairmen of President Obama’s commission on reducing the national debt put the challenge straight: “The problem is real. The solution is painful. There’s no easy way out. Everything must be on the table. And Washington must lead.”

That spirit is the most appealing aspect of the plan. Here is a refreshingly credible framework for putting the country’s finances in order, mixing spending reductions with tax increases, an appropriate balance critical to the task.

Erskine Bowles, a White House chief of staff under Bill Clinton, and Alan Simpson, a former U.S. senator from Wyoming, view their proposal as a “starting point” for discussion among the commission members. …

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The proposal points to where the country must go, reducing the level of national debt from the current 62 percent of the overall economy to 34 percent by 2040. The annual deficit plunges from 9.1 percent of the gross domestic product this year to 1.4 percent in 2020. …

Bowles and Simpson devote much time to repairing Social Security, making the fix more difficult than necessary. They overlook that Social Security isn’t really part of the deficit problem. Soaring Medicare is far more relevant.

Then again, this is what the co-chairmen advised: Let’s start talking substantively about the budget challenges. Now the commission as a whole has a chance to make improvements.

Akron Beacon Journal