Conrad Calls For Bipartisan Fiscal Responsibility Summit

By Anna Cameron

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) proposed on Tuesday the formation of a bipartisan summit to tackle the nation’s burgeoning debt.

“If we want to send a signal that America is going to face up to this…then the leaders of America should get together and come up with that plan,” Conrad said during a committee hearing that probed America’s economic outlook over the next ten years.

Adding to Conrad’s opening remarks, the testimonies of Dr. Richard Berner, Dr. Simon Johnson and David Malpass stressed the urgent importance of bipartisan economic reform. At the forefront of the discussion was the necessity for spending cuts, tax reform, financial responsibility and job creation.

Berner, chief U.S. economist for Morgan Stanley, emphasized the importance of bipartisanship in responding to the ongoing economic crisis, especially concerning health care costs.

“We have many challenges ahead. Our short term challenges are to enhance the odds for a more sustainable recovery,” Berner said. “Our long term challenges are to promote a sustainable fiscal policy to preserve our important safety nets.”

Johnson, a professor at MIT and Senior Fellow of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, endorsed Conrad’s suggestion and referred to the recent economic crisis as a mini-depression from which emergence would be slow, adding that unemployment figures will be slow to come down.

Demonstrating his belief in the urgent need for reform, Johnson said, “we don’t have enough equity in our system. This is not just about the United States, it is a global problem, but we should be the leaders in this and we are not. We are, if anything, the laggers, at least compared to the British, and compared to the Swiss who have been more decisive on this question.”

Building on Johnson’s testimony, David Melpass, President of the economic research firm Encima Global, addressed the risk of a catastrophic tipping point related to an enormous federal debt and escalating growth in spending. He prioritized immediate cuts in spending, a debt limit increase and significant tax reform.