Bayh Urges President Obama, Reid to Create Debt-Fighting Commission

In Oval Office meeting, discusses proposal to create special process to get deficits under control

October 14, 2009 -- Washington –One day after a private Oval Office meeting with President Obama to discuss his concerns about mounting federal deficits, Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN) today urged the leader of the Senate to endorse an independent debt-fighting panel to get America’s fiscal house in order.

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Today, Bayh wrote a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, signed by nine of his moderate Democratic colleagues. In that letter, Bayh argued the upcoming congressional vote to raise the U.S. debt ceiling should be tied the creation of “a special process that allows Congress and the administration to face up to our nation’s long-term fiscal imbalances—and allows for deliberation and a vote on a comprehensive package addressing these issues.”

“Each citizen’s share of today’s debt is more than $38,000,” Bayh and his colleagues wrote. “The bigger our deficits, the fewer resources we have to provide critical investments in energy, education and health care and tax relief for small businesses and middle-class families. And the bigger our deficits, the more we must borrow from foreign creditors, including the Chinese, to finance our massive debt.”

Bayh discussed the need for systemic spending reform with President Obama yesterday during a half-hour meeting requested by the White House because of Bayh’s leadership on fiscal responsibility issues as the leader of a group of 17 Senate moderates.

“I told the President that process matters,” Bayh said. “I shared my view that Washington has proven itself serially incapable of getting federal spending under control. If you have the same people and the same process, you are going to get the same results. What we need to do is change the process, and that’s what this debt-fighting commission represents.”

Bayh advocates the creation of a debt-fighting commission proposed by Senators Kent Conrad and Judd Gregg, leaders of the Senate Budget Committee, to end the business-as-usual budgetary process that has contributed to a $12 trillion national debt. The independent panel would be modeled after the BRAC process used to evaluate politically difficult military base closures. A special task force consisting of 15 members would focus on closing the gap between projected revenues and expenditures. The commission would make recommendations to Congress, which would be required to debate the panel’s proposal and then take an up-or-down vote on the entire package.

Source: Senator Evan Bayh