One item awaiting action from a new House speaker is a bill that would create a new “fiscal commission” charged with making recommendations to help curb federal spending.
While such commissions and panels have been created before – to little avail – this would at least force Congress to vote on its proposals “without amendment or delay.”
What, specifically, would this commission – made up of members of Congress and private sector experts, do? According to bill sponsor, Michigan Rep. Bill Huizenga, it will:
…identify policies to improve the fiscal situation in the medium term and to achieve a sustainable debt-to-GDP ratio in the long term. For any recommendations related to federal programs for which a federal trust fund exists, solvency must be improved for decades to come.
The Commission shall propose recommendations to balance the budget at the earliest reasonable date, including stabilizing the debt-to-GDP ratio at or below 100% within 10 years.
The Commission shall propose recommendations that meaningfully improve the long-term fiscal outlook, including changes to address the growth of direct spending and the gap between revenues and expenditures.
That's a fairly broad set of guidelines. But notice that, without using the words “Social Security” or “Medicare” – the largest drivers of federal spending – it says any ideas the commission proposes, “solvency must be improved for decades to come.”
Read that how you will, but it looks like nothing has been ruled off limits for entitlement reform. That's a positive development and an acknowledgment that there is no path to fiscal stability that does not include substantial changes to entitlements.
This also means that the likelihood of any such proposal making it to the floor would be remote…and passage even more so.
As for the prospects that such a commission bill will ever make it out of committee and onto the House or Senate floor…that's also hypothetical (if not fictional).
That sounds harsh – and it is – because the politics of federal spending are toxic. That will not change unless – and until – markets force both the political class and voters to take fiscal reform seriously. There is no indication right now that either is interested in making what are inevitably difficult tax and budget choices.
Politicians want to keep their jobs. Voters want to get whatever they think they are due (and more).
That variety of myopic selfishness can survive only so long as government bond traders allow it. And don't look now but…the bond vigilantes may be making a comeback.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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