Fatal Flaws of the Conrad-Gregg Commission

Kathryn Nix / January 15, 2010

This month, Congress will face every shopaholic’s worst nightmare: a maxed out credit card. After a year of seemingly endless government spending, the Senate must now vote to increase the limit on how much debt the federal government can carry. Lawmakers really have no option but to pass this unfortunate legislation, but the need to raise the debt limit should serve as a wake-up call to Washington to finally address this problem.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Ranking Member Judd Gregg (R-NH) have authored legislation which would create a commission to propose solutions to the federal government’s major spending problem. But as Heritage’ Stuart Butler points out in a recent paper, the Conrad-Gregg Commission is flawed such that it could produce more harm than good by its creation. Butler points out the main problems with the Conrad-Gregg legislation and explains why an alternative approach would better benefit the public and members of Congress:

• No Public Involvement. The timeline set by the Conrad-Gregg commission would severely limit participation by the American public. Public involvement is key to a discussion on such a crucial aspect of government, yet the commission would produce its findings right after the 2010 election in November and require Congress to vote on December 23. This bars participation by newly elected officials while allowing ousted members to vote, completely disregarding the will of the electorate. (more…)