Like many addicts, the government has a hard time quitting its bad habits cold turkey. So far legislators have shown they won’t seriously curb their compulsive spending habits that have led to a fiscal crisis. Instead they continue to pay lip service to the problem by proposing a small spending freeze, impotent pay-as-you-go rules, and the latest fiscal version of the nicotine patch – a Deficit Commission.
Today President Obama signed an executive order to create a Deficit Commission that will turn in its recommendation after the 2010 midterm elections.
Why do we need a commission to tell us in 10 months what we already know today? Government spending is too high and must be cut.
Expect the Commission to also recommend raising taxes. But how does it make sense that we should pay for government’s mistakes? (Not to mention it infuriates the American public.) Are politicians so unwilling to curb their spending that they would actually make us pay for the problem? Sadly, yes.
Politicians aren’t willing to take meaningful action because they profit politically when they give people goodies (spending) and suffer politically when they take those goodies away (spending cuts, taxing). That’s why we continue to see trivial spending reform proposals with tons of loopholes – politicians don’t stand up well to the web of interests they have created who kick and scream when their funding threatens to be reduced or cut. And that’s why politicians need a commission to play “bad cop,” so there is blame to share when they break promises by raising taxes.
The good news is voters are angry and demand the spending crisis be fixed. Make the message clear to politicians: real commitments to spending cut will lead to political success in the voting booth, dancing around the core problem to avoid angering special interests will guarantee political defeat.
