Fiscal Commission Created Today

President Obama ordered the creation of a bipartisan debt commission today. Saying “Everything is on the table” the commission is charged with coming up with recommendations by December 01, 2010.

The problem with such a commission is that its recommendations are not binding. The commission will deliver a report with recommendations for tax hikes and spending cuts and Congress will do nothing.

The country’s fiscal woes are obvious. The federal debt is $12 trillion and counting. According to the White House Budget Office, the debt will reach 77% of GDP by 2020. And the only way to solve the situation is a combination of tax increases and spending cuts.

Main Street knows this. We do not need a fiscal commission to tell our politicians what to do because we know they will not act. We need to tell Congress what to do by not voting for politicians who will not tackle the nation’s debt.

Our elected politicians only think about their short term reelection prospects and not the long term health of the nation. Democrats do not have the guts to vote for cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security which eat up the federal budget. Republicans will not raise taxes and cut defense spending. One wonders also if the GOP will actually vote for cuts in entitlement spending. After all, they painted themselves the champions of Medicare and Medicaid during the President’s failed health care overhaul.

Instead, they blame each other for the current debt crisis. Democrats blame the Bush Administration but they will gladly vote for the Administration’s spending binge. Republicans blame the President and congressional Democrats but they are hypocrites. With control of Congress and the White House, they did nothing to curb the federal debt. They just cut taxes and increased spending at the same time.  And Democrats would increase taxes and increase spending if they could get away with it. So who is worse?

Our elected officials will not act on the fiscal commission's proposals because they are not serious about eliminating the federal debt. If they were serious then they would sit down now and hammer out a deal to do so. Knowing this we need to vote against incumbent politicians and elect adults who know how to balance a check book and make difficult decisions around a table.