On commission

Hold on to your seats. This may come as a surprise—if you’ve been living under a rock for the past 40 years—but America is divided politically.

While almost everyone agrees that partisanship has run amok in America, it’s been my contention for a few decades now that we agree about far more than we disagree. It’s the winnertake-all political structure currently in place that makes whiners of us all.

Politicians are thought of as being too conciliatory and are punished for crossing the aisle, rather than being rewarded as statesmen for trying to get work done. Our political system is more about fighting battles than it is about winning the war on any given issue for the American people.

However, the one issue upon which we almost all want to win is in eliminating the national debt, which has grown to roughly $34 trillion over the past several decades. Republicans blame Democrats for spending too much, and Democrats blame Republicans for cutting taxes while continuing to spend too much.

We shouldn’t blame anyone for trying to address it. That’s what this Congress appears to be attempting to do by working to set up a special commission.

There are some who don’t like the idea of a commission, and some who do. I’ll go with the latter, if for no other reason that we should all be sick and tired of watching Congress back itself into a corner every year on budget matters, which play a role in the country’s diminishing credit rating.

Here’s the deal: The House Budget Committee, on a 22-12 vote, pushed the idea of creating a commission last week.

It would be made up of 16 members. Twelve would come from Congress (six Republicans and six Democrats) and four “outside experts” who wouldn’t get voting privileges. That would be left to the 12 elected members.

At least six hearings will be held across the country. Final recommendations would be due by May 2025 and will be presented to a Congress whose majority is not yet known.

In order for the recommendations to be put forward, they must be approved not only by a majority of the commission, but at least two members of each party.

I’ve been watching this political game for longer than most Americans have been alive and can’t recall a committee, commission, think tank, etc., of any kind that is structured in a more bipartisan way unless it’s the ethics committees in each respective chamber.

On the Senate side of Washington, Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Republican

Mitt Romney of Utah have sponsored companion legislation in the upper chamber.

It’s easy to be skeptical. Commissions like this are not new to Congress, and their success has been spotty. However, the ones that have been considered successful focus on bipartisanship.

In this political climate, nobody would fall off their horse if this goes nowhere, but it’s a start. The fact that this particular Congress could create anything at all with as many members from one party as the other is encouraging, and no doubt will give more credibility to what’s produced.

Republican House Budget Chairman Jodey Arrington of Texas says both parties are guilty of being fiscally irresponsible. Few truer words have ever been spoken, but if they have, they again came from Arrington, who said, “We all own this. We’re all in this boat together.”

Unfortunately, the top Democrat on the Budget Committee, Rep. Brendan Boyle from Pennsylvania, fears some lawmakers want to use the commission “as a back-door way to force through unpopular cuts.” He says Congress needs to have the courage to increase the revenues going into Social Security and Medicare, which would put both on firmer footing.

Congress needs to have the courage, but in recent years the only thing Congress and courage have had in common is the same first letter.

To their credit, three Democrats on the committee voted in favor of the commission. Democrat Scott Peters of California is one of them. He says, “We can pretend that regular order is going to take care of it” or take a different path.

We’re all in this boat together, and even those of us in our 50s will be rowing this boat for a long time to come. It’s as clear as day that resolving this monumental challenge will take more than just business as usual. Congress has proven that time and again. Those are the facts. If they weren’t true, we wouldn’t be $34 trillion in debt.

A new path is required, and if this isn’t it, what is?