海角大神

, we鈥檝e just started a new fiscal year (FY2011) last Friday, but we didn鈥檛 exactly get to 鈥減arty like it鈥檚 2010鈥� (when expensive policies are scheduled to expire). Seriously, a few years ago I had a lot of faith that we would have enacted some meaningful reforms by now, especially on the tax side given the 鈥渁ction forcing event鈥� of the scheduled expiration of the Bush tax cuts. But 鈥渃hange鈥� has been minimal on the fiscal policy front, even with changes in who鈥檚 in charge.

Bob came up with this great list of (fiscal) New Year鈥檚 Resolutions, Concord Coalition-style:

[I]t seems like a good time to make some New Year鈥檚 resolutions. Here are a few suggestions:

• First, the President鈥檚 bipartisan fiscal commission should resolve to overcome partisan differences and produce a plan for long-term deficit reduction.
• Second, the President should resolve to make deficit reduction the main focus of his Fiscal Year 2012 budget, allowing for a phase-in period as the economy recovers.
• Third, Congress should resolve to pass a budget resolution next year, something it failed to do this year. And that resolution should contain a realistic strategy for reducing the deficit, including discretionary spending cuts, phased-in entitlement reforms, revenue increases and an enforcement mechanism to back it up.
• Fourth, the media and the public should resolve to keep the pressure on politicians to produce solutions that add up. No more 鈥渇uzzy math鈥� evasions should be tolerated on the campaign trail or in the halls of Congress.
• And finally, the public must resolve to accept that sacrifices will be required to ensure a more prosperous future. Don鈥檛 blame the politicians for failing to make responsible choices if they are only rewarded at the polls for making irresponsible promises.

If these resolutions are made and met, we might have more reason to cheer when the next fiscal new year comes around.

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