Mark Warner of Virginia and Saxby Chambliss of Georgia told an audience of Virginia Chamber of Commerce members that unless Congress and the president take steps to reduce the national debt – now $14 trillion – then cuts will be forced on the country by those owed the money, most prominently the Chinese government.
“If we put this off, we’re approaching financial Armageddon,” Warner said.
Warner, a Democrat, and Chambliss, a Republican, have been working with a small group of senators to draft legislation based on the presidential debt commission, which in December proposed spending cuts and revenue changes that would cut the federal budget by $4 trillion over 10 years. They note that Washington currently borrows 40 cents of every dollar it spends.
Among the commission’s proposals: streamlining the tax code to lower rates and abolish about $1 trillion in popular tax breaks for individuals and corporations; and raising the Social Security retirement age in future decades while increasing the payroll tax on high earners.
The commission also suggested raising the gas tax and cutting spending throughout the federal government, including defense.
The plan sparked an outcry from various interest groups, and President Barack Obama did not incorporate any of its major elements into the budget proposal he released last month.
In recent weeks, Warner, Chambliss and four other senators – collectively dubbed the “Gang of Six” – have been privately meeting to try to hammer out specific legislative language based on the debt commission’s report.
The other four senators are Democrats Dick Durbin of Illinois, who is among the most liberal senators, and Kent Conrad of North Dakota, leader of the Senate Budget Committee; and Republicans Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Mike Crapo of Idaho. All four served on the commission and endorsed its report.
So far, Warner and Chambliss said, at least 16 Republicans and 15 Democrats support their efforts.
Supporters hope that if legislation can be agreed upon by such an ideologically diverse group, it has a better chance of passage.
“At the end of the day, it is about trust. It’s about making sure that at some point you’re going to have to link arms with somebody and take a jump,” Warner said.
Warner and Chambliss have spoken about their efforts in media interviews, but Monday’s session with about 200 business executives in downtown Richmond is the first time they have made their case together in a public forum. They will conduct a similar session next month in Atlanta.
For the plan to work, Warner said, it won’t be enough to cut spending and change the tax system. The third element, he said, has to be growing the economy.
Business executives have to “have some skin in the game” when it comes to helping pay off the debt and keeping jobs in the United States, he said.
“At some point, we have to realize that to our country we have some obligation as well,” he told the chamber members. “And that has to be somehow in this discussion.”
The senators acknowledged that getting approval from the Senate, House and Obama will be difficult given the resistance of special interest groups not wanting to lose their particular tax breaks, programs or benefits.
Changes have to be made or the country’s financial situation will become so shaky that its lenders will step in, Chambliss warned.
“We’ve got a window of opportunity for Congress to do it on our terms. If we don’t do it, then those people that buy our bonds – i.e. the Chinese – are going to dictate to us exactly how to do it,” Chambliss said.
Precisely when the group will introduce its legislation remains unclear. Warner said in January that he hoped legislation would be introduced by March. On Monday, he and Chambliss declined to be specific other than to say the legislation needs to be approved this year, before the 2012 elections take center stage.
“This is the issue of our time. It’s not as stark as our parents’ fight against fascism or communism,” Warner said. “I can’t think of anything that would be more un-American than to not get it right.”