Mark Trahant: Spring cleaning for the government

Monday, March 26, 2007  

"This is a perfect time to start spring-cleaning. The presidential election cycle is beginning early -- and more exposure on the campaign trail ought to give candidates enough time to address serious issues beyond sound bites. But the candidates need to see this issue as important to voters. It's so much easier for candidates to find a detour around the demographic divide, rather than building a bridge across. We need to keep bringing up the uncomfortable subject.

Congress is only taking baby steps.

Last week, the Concord Coalition, the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, Center for Economic Development and Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget released a joint statement that called on Congress to tighten its spending discipline by requiring that new proposals be either budget neutral or the money found from savings from existing funds. "Restoring the pay-as-you-go principle would, at a minimum, force Congress to weigh the short-term political attractions of new proposals against the long-term fiscal consequences. Given where deficits now stand and the known fiscal challenges that lie ahead, it is policy-makers' responsibility to do this," the statement said. "They owe future generations no less."

Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., says the most important thing Congress can do now is stop growing the debt. "All the economists tell us the most important thing we have to do is to reverse the debt growing faster than the size of the economy," he said. "I am proud to report this budget does so."

But Conrad's committee budget is losing steam. A Democratic rewrite weakened pay-as-you-go rules, protected middle class tax cuts and generally proposed more spending.

"I don't assert that this is a perfect budget," Conrad said Friday. "If I had a totally free hand, I am certain it would be different. But at the end of the day, the test for us is, can we write a budget for our country? In three of the last five years, there has not been a budget for the United States of America. Let me repeat that. In three of the last five years, there has not been a budget for the United States.""

Get the Story:
Mark Trahant: Government needs to clean closets (The Seattle Post-Intelligencer 3/25)

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