Dear Leaders: Would You Please Lead Already?

Here’s a letter that a bunch of budget-world VIPs and otherwise very “Honorable” people–oh, and my “non-honorable” self snuck in somehow–sent to President Obama and Congressional leaders today.  Kind of a simple plea: would you please start leading on fiscal responsibility instead of just standing there, fighting over which side or corner is the more fiscally irresponsible?  Or instead of just sitting there, feeling helpless about what to do because the problem is so large and your political selves so entrenched?  Here’s the text of the letter:

Dear President Obama, Speaker Boehner, Minority Leader Pelosi, Majority Leader Reid, and Minority Leader McConnell:

As you continue to work on our current budget situation, we are writing to let you know that we join with the 64 Senators who recently wrote that comprehensive deficit reduction measures are imperative, and to urge you to work together in support of a broad approach to solving the nation’s fiscal problems. As they said in their letter to President Obama:

“As you know, a bipartisan group of Senators has been working to craft a comprehensive deficit reduction package based upon the recommendations of the Fiscal Commission. While we may not agree with every aspect of the Commission’s recommendations, we believe that its work represents an important foundation to achieve meaningful progress on our debt. The Commission’s work also underscored the scope and breadth of our nation’s long-term fiscal challenges. Beyond FY2011 funding decisions, we urge you to engage in a broader discussion about a comprehensive deficit reduction package. Specifically, we hope that the discussion will include discretionary spending cuts, entitlement changes and tax reform.

By approaching these negotiations comprehensively, with a strong signal of support from you, we believe that we can achieve consensus on these important fiscal issues. This would send a powerful message to Americans that Washington can work together to tackle this critical issue. Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

We agree with this letter and hope that you will work together to agree on a comprehensive, multi-year debt stabilization package.

To see the full letter including the complete list of signatories, go here.

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