The debt stalemate - whose to blame?

The talks about raising the debt ceiling seem to have come to a stalemate, and of course (predictably) both sides are loudly pointing the finger at the other side, and spinning their intransigence as the other side's fault. No doubt there is more than enough fault to go around. The liberals refuse to cut entitlements, which is where almost all the debt problem lies, and the conservatives are adamant about no new taxes.

So in the midst of all this political clamor (sound and fury signifying nothing), what would be the terms of a rational deal? Where would we find such a deal?

Well, one might try the President's own Debt Commission. He established a bipartisan commission and charged them with finding a solution to the debt problem, and they did. They reported it in detail in their December 2010 final report. Here, from pages 15-16 of the report, are the major recommendations:

1) Discretionary Spending Cuts: Enact tough discretionary spending caps to force budget discipline in Congress. Include enforcement mechanisms to give the limits real teeth. Make significant cuts in both security and non-security spending by cutting low-priority programs and streamlining government operations. Offer over $50 billion in immediate cuts to lead by example, and provide $200 billion in illustrative 2015 savings.

2) Comprehensive Tax Reform: Sharply reduce rates, broaden the base, simplify the tax code, and reduce the deficit by reducing the many “tax expenditures” – another name for spending through the tax code. Reform corporate taxes to make America more competitive, and cap revenue to avoid excessive taxation.

3) Health Care Cost Containment: Replace the phantom savings from scheduled Medicare reimbursement cuts that will never materialize and from a new long-term care program that is unsustainable with real, common-sense reforms to physician payments, cost-sharing, malpractice law, prescription drug costs, government-subsidized medical education, and other sources. Institute additional long-term measures to bring down spending growth.

4) Mandatory Savings: Cut agricultural subsidies and modernize military and civil service retirement systems, while reforming student loan programs and putting the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation on a sustainable path.

5) Social Security Reforms to Ensure Long-Term Solvency and Reduce Poverty: Ensure sustainable solvency for the next 75 years while reducing poverty among seniors. Reform Social Security for its own sake, not for deficit reduction.

6) Process Changes: Reform the budget process to ensure the debt remains on a stable path, spending stays under control, inflation is measured accurately, and taxpayer dollars go where they belong.

Sounds to me pretty much like what the Republicans have been asking for in the negotiations. So if the president won't agree to the perfectly obvious recommendations of his own bipartisan debt commission, I have to conclude that despite the liberal spin, the talks are stalled mostly because the liberals won't face the reality that their cherished entitlement programs are bankrupting the nation.