Ignoring the obvious

Erskine Bowles, chief of staff to former President Bill Clinton, and retired Sen. Alan Simpson, (R-Wyo.), co-chairs of the Presidential Commission on the Deficit, apparently can't get any kind of consensus on how to tackle the deficit from the rest of the bipartisan commission, so they have made the obvious proposal themselves -- raise taxes and cut spending. Predictably, the Republicans are dead set against any tax increases, and the Democrats are dead set against any spending cuts.

Of course, there is no way to control the Federal deficit except by raising taxes and cutting spending. So I don't know what the Republicans and the Democrats think they are going to do instead. I suppose they hope to stall and stall and stall and hope that they can pass the problem off to their successors without every having to make any hard decisions.

Nancy Pelosi, again predictably, said

“This proposal is simply unacceptable,” she said. “Any final proposal from the Commission should do what is right for our children and grandchildren's economic security as well as for our nation's fiscal security, and it must do what is right for our seniors, who are counting on the bedrock promises of Social Security and Medicare. And it must strengthen America's middle class families — under siege for the last decade, and unable to withstand further encroachment on their economic security.

I don't know why she thinks a soaring Federal deficit is the "right thing to do for our children and grandchildren's economic security", but then logic doesn't seem to play much role in political statements.