Simpson-Bowles report might offer compromise

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on December 17, 2012 at 3:00 AM

To the Editor:

I am sick of the fiscal cliff. I have had enough of the Republicans pledging allegiance to Grover Norquist and the Democrats refusing to cut any spending except the military. The president flying all over the country with his ''class warfare message'' isn't helping anything, either.

I don't pretend to know how to fix the problem, but I do know that we owe more than $16 trillion and we borrow or more than 40 cents of each dollar we spend. It doesn't take an economist to know that this is not sustainable. The president created a commission early in his first term to consider the debt problem. The report by Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles was hated by the Democrats because it cut spending and the Republicans because it raised taxes. The president ignored the commission's recommendations. I think that something that both sides hate is probably a good compromise. I doubt that if we did what the commission suggested would solve all the problems but it would be a step in the right direction. Why can't we give it a shot?

John Rosser