Tackling the US deficit--A modest proposal

America is spending beyond its means, both parties and the president (not to mention pundits and protesters) have recognised.On Thursday Feburary 18th Barack Obama announced that he was forming such as commission, by executive order, to seek ways to tackle the deficit. The commission will be co-chaired by a long-time former Republican senator, Alan Simpson, and a Democratic former chief of staff to Bill Clinton, Erskine Bowles. The rest of the panel will include four more appointees from Mr Obama (one must be a non-Democrat), and three each for the Republican and Democratic leaders of both the House and the Senate. The best reason for optimism for the panel is that its remit is rather modest: to bring the budget deficit to balance (excluding interest payments) by 2015. This sounds like a long way to go, with the deficit projected to reach 10.6% of GDP this year. Yet there are reasons to be more pessimistic. The commission will merely offer advice. An earlier effort to create a panel that could make recommendations which Congress would be forced to vote on (without amendment) failed in the Senate in January. Only 53 of 100 senators voted in favour, not enough to clear a 60-vote procedural threshold. Many Democrats (fearing entitlement cuts), and most Republicans (who would not countenance any tax increases), voted against.