Don't do that to your grandchildren

President Obama could hardly have found two better co-chairs of his new deficit reduction commission than Erskine Bowles, the former White House chief of staff and current UNC president, and Alan Simpson, the retired Wyoming senator. But it's hard to be optimistic about the commission's chances.

On the day of Bowles' and Simpson's appointment, conservative Republicans were engaging in an ideological purity festival, egged on by former Vice President Dick Cheney. These conservatives sounded an alarm that they were ready to destroy their own political party (and its golden opportunity in 2010 elections) by demanding fealty to their doctrine. Their purge would eliminate anyone willing to consider new or increased taxes to solve the nation's deficit problem or anyone willing to even talk to Democrats. Disregarding the catastrophic consequences of doing nothing, these true believers made it clear they would prefer to destroy the nation than to raise taxes.

Democrats seem no less intransigent. The Democratic leadership in Congress seems just as adamant about its own ideology and its unwillingness to make serious spending cuts in a federal budget that is $1.4 trillion in the red this year or to abandon the system of earmarks to which they've become addicted. Both parties seem more interested in making partisan points than in governing. It's no wonder the public's faith in Congress is astoundingly low.

Simpson and Bowles made it clear that everything would be on the table in their deliberations. That means Social Security benefits, payroll taxes, income taxes, estate taxes, Medicaid, Medicare, defense, entitlements, etc., etc. That is as it has to be. There is no easy way out of this dilemma, and time is short before our profligate spending really hits the fan. Whole programs will have to be eliminated; revenue will have to be increased.

If these painful actions are not taken, both Bowles and Simpson emphasized, our grandchildren will suffer egregiously. Why would we do that to our grandchildren?