September 19, 2007
WHY NOT NAME BILL CLINTON AND GEORGE W. BUSH TO LEAD IT?:
Senate Budget Leaders Would Force Next Congress to Tackle Entitlement Costs (Congressional Quarterly, 9/18/07)
The leaders of the Senate Budget Committee unveiled legislation Tuesday that would require the next Congress to address the long-term budget strain associated with Social Security, Medicare and other entitlement programs.
The bill would create a 16-member task force that would make recommendations by Dec. 9, 2008, on how to address soaring costs of programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. The bill calls for the recommendations to be introduced as legislation in the 111th Congress, and both chambers would have to consider it soon after that Congress convenes in January 2009. Debate would be limited, and the proposal could not be amended. It would require a three-fifths majority vote in both chambers to pass.
The legislation was unveiled Tuesday by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., and Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, the panel’s ranking Republican. The task force would be charged with looking at all aspects of the budget, including tax policy. “Everything is on the table,” said Conrad, D-N.D.
“We tried to take the politics out the runup to this work,” Conrad said, by putting off the task force’s recommendations until after the 2008 elections.
A commission is the best way to sneak personalized Social Security accounts through Congress.