A Deficit-Cutting Fight Both Parties Can Win

As we wait for President Obama to reveal his proposal for deficit reduction on Wednesday afternoon, I ask readers to consider my debt-cutting proposal. The Ken Silber Plan was, it is true, hastily slapped together, but the same could be said for whatever Obama is about to unveil, as the White House policymaking machinery clearly kicked into high gear only in recent days after the release of Rep. Paul Ryan’s “Path to Prosperity.”

The Silber Plan consists of the following elements:

1. Split the differences on spending, taxation and entitlement reform between the Ryan plan (and other suitable GOP documents) and whatever Obama proposes.

2. Split any differences between that and any proposal from the bipartisan “Gang of Six” senators.

3. Check whether the resulting compromise is denounced by Rush Limbaugh and Rachel Maddow or better yet Keith Olbermann if he’s still commenting somewhere. If it is, then proceed. If not, adjust until these commentators denounce it.

It might be argued that the above is unprincipled centrism reflecting a fetish for compromise.  Compromise, however, has been a crucial element of the American political system since the Constitution, a rightly revered document that involved much, sometimes unpalatable, splitting of differences.

Moreover, while some might say that the Silber Plan is a bit overly formulaic, I point out that knee-jerk hostility to compromise is a rigid stance too, and an all-too-common one.

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