t b e d e h t x fi
The first option in the process involves some excellent work done by the Bipartisan Policy Center and their Debt Reduction Task Force. This task force was headed by former Republican New Mexican Senator Pete Domenci and Democrat Alice Rivlin, the original director of the Congressional Budget Office. They have come up with an excellent, in-depth analysis and proposal that would reduce Federal government debt by over $6 TRILLION. It is a balanced approach that recommends significantly more spending cuts than tax increases and does a pretty good job of spreading the pain across the entire country.
Given their detailed work, lets use their $6 TRILLION as the target for debt reduction. Lets also use the model that has worked in the past that the political class has used historically to duck its responsibilities. For example, when it was obvious that the country needed to reduce the number of military bases the military was operating, the politicians could not bring themselves to vote on individual bases since the politicians were deathly afraid that even though it might be the right decision for the nation, it might cost them a few votes.
Rather than endanger their reelection chances, the political class came up with the concept of the base closing commission that would take the heat for recommending what bases to close. The politicians set up a process where they could only vote for what the commission recommended in total, they could not change or cherry pick the commission's findings. Thus, they could hide behind what the commission recommended and what Congress voted on in total, not on individual bases fix the debt.