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Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., and ranking member Judd Gregg, R-N.H., aim to form a bipartisan working group to tackle long-term fiscal challenges and propose parliamentary steps to boost passage of the politically risky ideas.

All sides agree that the fiscal outlook is bleak, and unless all sides agree to take the political hit, little will be accomplished. Under the proposal, the legislative package would be considered under expedited rules in both chambers and require veto-proof supermajority votes in both chambers.

At a panel hearing Thursday, Conrad and Gregg said the group would comprise representatives from the White House as well as bipartisan House and Senate leadership. The goal is to come up with solutions to problems such as the cost of providing benefits to the roughly 80 million baby boomers who are beginning to retire.

Conrad said he hoped the group would examine all budgetary challenges brought on by entitlement spending but also the levels of tax revenue needed to support national commitments. "Not limited to Medicare and Social Security, but including the imbalances between projected revenue and expenditure that we're getting," he said.

Added Gregg: "The key to the procedure is that it be unquestionably bipartisan, that nobody feels they're being gamed, that the American people feel that when the procedure is concluded and the policy is proposed, it has been reached in a way that is totally fair."

The package would then be allotted "fast-track" privileges restricting amendments, which Conrad acknowledged would be difficult because offering amendments is a senator's "fundamental right."

The concept of a working group to devise a long-term budget plan, rather than a commission, is gaining support on both sides of the aisle. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told CongressDaily in an interview Wednesday he would support giving Conrad and Gregg the opportunity to work out a bipartisan plan, contingent on White House involvement.

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., a hawk on spending issues, said he agreed with it as well. "Absolutely, if you leave it up to the normal political process, you'll never get it done. So, it needs to have some outside-the-box thinking like that," he said.

The challenges to developing such a plan are substantial, and Republicans and Democrats remain at odds on whether to focus more on spending or revenues. At the hearing Thursday, Government Accountability Office Comptroller David Walker said it would have to be a multipart solution but indicated entitlement spending was the more immediate problem.

"If there is one thing that is going to bankrupt America, it's health care," Walker said, adding that the Medicare prescription drug benefit alone has added $8 trillion in government obligations, more than all of Social Security over the past six years. He indicated Congress should continue to restrain discretionary spending and perhaps apply pay/go rules to existing entitlements, not just new programs.

He referred to the idea as a "reconsideration trigger" requiring Congress to renew such programs, similar to what Gregg has suggested. But Walker did not discount the need for more revenue, arguing that the historical norm of taxes amounting to 18 percent of gross domestic product will not be adequate to meet looming challenges.

"The numbers don't come close to working," he said.

COMMENTS

• This is all a long-winded way of saying the United States of America is broke. We haven't made enough money to cover our expenses for a long time and now our debt is crushing us. I think most Americans can understand this analogy better. The way out of crushing debt is to stop borrowing and get another job to raise more revenue to pay back the creditors while consolidating the loans at lower interest rates. For America to do this it has to stop fighting wars it can't afford, cut federal programs and raise taxes. I used to be called a tax and spend liberal by my conservative friends I call borrow and spend conservatives. It is time to spend only what we can afford and for America to live within its means. GovExec.com reader Posted January 12, 2007 7:41 AM
• Like most of these committees, when all is said and done, a lot more is said than done. I will not believe that the Congress is serious until they start looking inward. Instead of looking at how to raise taxes, they need to look at how to stop government waste. Someone needs to tell the Pentagon that they must disclose all of their expenditures to the public and do it in a timely manner. The Congress needs to start listening when people tell them about mismanagement and corruption in federal agencies (and do something about it!). The federal waste fraud and abuse hotline is all show and no go. Before asking more of the taxpayers, the federal government must cease being the fiscal black hole where money gets sucked in and little comes out. Robert M. Posted January 12, 2007 7:41 AM