We are now in the next phase of testing the theory of consensus versus crisis as the motivating factor for deficit-cutting – or, to put it another way, whether we can build consensus in the absence of crisis.
• The drive for consensus is why Bowles, President Clinton’s former chief of staff, and his co-chairman, former Republican Senator Alan Simpson, are leading a bipartisan commission that is charged with crafting a deficit-cutting plan by year-end.
• It’s why former Clinton budget director Alice Rivlin is co-chairing another fiscal commission, with much the same goal, with former Republican Senator Pete Domenici under the auspices of the Bipartisan Policy Center.
• It’s why two earlier private-sector fiscal commissions have already issued their blueprints for deficit reduction.
• It’s why America Speaks, a non-profit that seeks public engagement on critical public issues, solicited public input on deficit-cutting options as part of a national town hall meeting late last month.
• It’s why other policy organizations of the left and right are holding conferences and seminars, and why their experts are writing papers and op-eds, on the fiscal challenges before us.
The issue is whether – compared to the eras of Reagan, Bush (the first), and Clinton, each of them marked by consensus-driven deficit reduction – our politics has sunk into such a state of mindless and bitter partisanship that today’s policymakers simply cannot repeat the fiscal heroism of their forbearers.
We shall see.
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Lawrence J. Haas is former Communications Director to Vice President Gore and, before that, to the White House Office of Management and Budget. He's now a public affairs consultant who writes widely about foreign and domestic affairs, including fiscal policy.