The 'Six's' sense
The Senate's "Gang of Six" has a bipartisan proposal to cut the deficit. It might just be our best option.
Sen. Tom Coburn (R) of Oklahoma, left, one of the so-called Gang of Six bipartisan negotiators seeking a solution to the debt crisis, walks to the Senate with Sen. Richard Burr (R) of North Carolina, at the Capitol in Washington, June 28, 2011.The Gang of Six's proposal makes more sense than anything else that's been presented, writes guest blogger Diane Lim Rogers.
J. Scott Applewhite / AP / File
The Concord Coalition’s Board of Directors released this statement praising the new plan of the Senate’s “Gang of Six”–dubbing them the “Gang of Sense.” What is so sensible about it? They explain:
Now, the Gang of Six has returned with a bipartisan proposal to cut the deficit by nearly $4 trillion through 2021 and stabilize the growth of debt at a sustainable level. All parts of the budget, including domestic discretionary spending, defense, entitlements and taxes would be subject to scrutiny. Savings targets would be given to the appropriate congressional committees with across-the-board cuts in areas where committees fail to achieve their targets, while protecting those most in need.
The proposal is tough but politically viable because it calls for broad sacrifice. Indeed, it is the basic concession to political reality – that no one can get everything they want and all must accept some things they don’t want – that gives the Gang of Six proposal its breakthrough potential.
As former members of Congress, we recognize that filling in the details of this proposal through the legislative process will be difficult. However, we continue to believe that the cooperative approach taken by the senators’ group is the most promising route to enactment of legislation curbing the economically destructive and generationally inequitable explosion of debt that awaits if we don’t change course.
Seems that it’s time that congressional leaders and the President appeal to the six’s sense. The other options don’t seem to be working out so well.
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