Senate Budget Committee chair Kent Conrad (D-ND) and OMB Direct Robert Portman outdid each other at yesterday's Committee hearing. They lavishly praised each other's sincerity and good-faith bipartisan commitment to restoring the nation's fiscal imbalances by guaranteeing long-term entitlement program solvency, taking pains and risks to be sure to leave everything on the table, sharing a good-natured chuckle at the off-message public comments of a naughty Vice President who tried take some minor taxware of the table in broad daylight.
Conrad: Let's go to where we might agree because there are places you and I agree. The place we
agree is our long-term prognosis on the need to face up to the fiscal imbalances. You have said
everything is on the table. What do you mean by that?
Portman: First of all, I agree with you. I think it is incredibly important we as public officials on both sides of Pennsylvania Avenue and both sides of the aisle acknowledge the problem and I
commended you for that... [T]here should be no preconditions, meaning that everything should be on the table... [T]his is the biggest fiscal challenge that we face, and we should address it, and we should do so in a bipartisan way.
Conrad: Let me just follow up and ask you this question. When you say no preconditions, does that
mean that you can foresee a resolution that includes both additional revenue as well as reduction in
expenses for the long-term entitlements? I am asking, though, when your side says, "There are
no preconditions," because you say this, Secretary Paulson says it, but then I see the President and
the Vice President, when they are interviewed publicly, slam the door in terms of revenue.
Portman: Absolutely, there is a serious chance, but...
Conrad: So is revenue on the table? If there is a discussion, if we come together for a negotiation, is
revenue on the table as far as the administration is concerned?
Portman: I don't know how I can be more clear.... we believe that we do not need additional revenues to get to balance in 2012.
Conrad: Director Portman, you are doing exactly what I feared......what I am hearing from you is
exactly what I hear publicly from the President and Vice President — that this is only going to be
done on the cost cutting side, which clearly has to be done, but nothing on the revenue side. If that
is what you postulate, then there will not be a conclusion because then you are only asking one side
fundamentally to compromise. If both sides aren't prepared to compromise, there will not be
resolution during this administration, and that would be a tragedy.
Closing Comment from Chairman Conrad: We have an opportunity here to work together, but the only way I know in human relations for there to be resolution between parties who have different views is for both sides to compromise. And, unfortunately I see virtually none on your side. And I regret that more than I can say.