The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (Bowles-Simpson) was only necessary because neither party can unilaterally makes the kind of radical budgeting decisions necessary to bring our budget into balance. There are two reasons for this. First, the parties both enjoy enough power to block a plan imposed by the other side, which makes compromise necessary. Second, neither party can take 100% of the political fallout from massive budget cuts/tax increases and survive. Both parties need the other party to take tough unpopular decisions so that the blame is shared. So, the entire premise of the Bowles-Simpson endeavor was that both sides would make concessions that infuriate their respective bases and the wider public. The Democrats cautiously took steps in that direction but discovered that the Republicans would not accept any kind of revenue increases. Yes, the Simpson-Bowles plan technically had revenue enhancements, but the GOP wouldn’t sign off on those enhancements. People seem to forget that the Commission did not approve any plan. What they delivered was a plan that they themselves had rejected.
That, in turn, led to the SuperCommittee which ran into the exact same problem. Despite onerous cuts, especially to defense spending, that were supposed to assure some kind of deal would be reached, the Republicans would not agree to any new revenues and so the SuperCommittee failed, too.
And, yet, we still have this Cult of the Bowles-Simpson committee out there. Whether it’s Jamie Dimon testifying before Congress or Dana Milbank writing in the Washington Post, there seems to be a collective amnesia that the GOP never signed off on Bowles-Simpson. They continue to behave as if it is reasonable to expect the president of the United States to embrace the opposing party’s vision of America as his own.
It’s ruining this country, and I am tired of hearing idiots pine for Bowles-Simpson.
