New Math for Debt Compromise
Policy + Politics

New Math for Debt Compromise

Since January, six senators have engaged in difficult negotiations and made painful concessions in a politically dangerous quest for something that has long eluded Washington: a bipartisan compromise to control the nation’s mounting debt.

By Tuesday evening, however, the “Gang of Six” was on the verge of collapse. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) withdrew from the bipartisan working group, saying the senators simply could not overcome the polarizing political pressure that each faces. The group’s two other Republicans said it would be hard to continue without Coburn.

“The debt is still $14 trillion. It’s got to be solved in a bipartisan way,” Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) told reporters Tuesday night. “I hope that we’ll eventually, as a Gang of Six, be able to come together on some long-term resolution of the issue. But it looks like that’s not going to happen in the short term.”

Coburn’s withdrawal left Chambliss exposed, pushing him into the position as the group’s highest-profile conservative. He would be responsible for selling any compromise to those Republicans who think “compromise” is a dirty word.

If anyone could do it, it would be Chambliss. He arrived in Congress as one of then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s foot soldiers. Now in the Senate, he has one of the most conservative voting records.

A mild-mannered lawmaker in a Capitol crowded with lightning rods, Chambliss, 67, is one of Speaker John A. Boehner’s few confidants.

But compromise itself has proved elusive.

Asked whether the Gang of Six will continue to meet without Coburn, Sen. Mike Crapo (Idaho), the group’s third Republican, was uncertain. “I don’t know,” he told reporters. “I’ve got to think that through.”

Read more at The Washington Post.