On the very day this week when the Congressional Budget Office warned that the succession of previously unimaginable trillion-dollar-plus budget deficits could inflict ruin on the United States, the Senate faced a moment of truth.
For the first time, a truly bipartisan proposal aimed at averting such a calamity came to a vote. By 53 to 46, the senators approved the measure officially described as a bill for “responsible fiscal action, to assure the long-term fiscal stability and economic security of the federal government of the United States, and to expand future prosperity and growth for all Americans.”
Of course, this being the 21st-century Senate, it meant defeat because of a failure to command the 60-vote supermajority the opposition now always requires.
The Congress as the core function of appropriating money. They have no Constitutional authority to delegate this to a commission and no commission has the authority to bind the Congress.
Nor do we need a congressional commission to put a fig leaf on massive tax hikes necessitated by “previously unimaginable trillion-dollar-plus budget deficits.” We need a Congress that will quit acting like a legion of shopaholics.
Hmm, I guess I’ll have to have a little phone chat with my senator’s office staff…….as if that would do any good!
We have a body which has the authority to see to the fiscal health of the national government. It’s the U.S. Congress. Why a Commission? To evade responsibility?