People Talking Sense

Something strange happened yesterday in the United States Senate; two of our elected officials, one Democrat the other Republican put on a rare display of bipartisan sensibility.

Kudos to Democrat Mark Warner and Republican Saxby Chambliss for sitting down together and telling Americans the truth, that fixing our nation's budget problems is going to require sensible cuts, raising taxes and compromise.

Here are two men who are willing to go beyond the partisan bickering and agree on what sensible people already know - that we can't fix our budget deficit with cuts alone, and that we can't ignore Social Security and Medicare if we really want to fix the problem.

Traditionally, Republicans think it's possible to cut a deficit without raising taxes, while Democrats refuse to make changes to Social Security and Medicare. Both of these notions are wrong, and while sensible people know this, our elected officials don't seem to bother catering to sensible people as much as they pander to special interests. So what we get is a refusal by Democrats to even consider raising the retirement age and a Republican attempt to cut too much discretionary spending that won't actually dent the deficit but will derail our economic recovery.

What Warner and Chambliss are proposing isn't anything new, but what they're actually doing is a good sign for our future. It's encouraging to see bipartisanship, and even more encouraging to hear people talking sense.

We have a lot of work to do if we are actually going to improve America's finances, and that work needs to be done in a sensible manner by people who are willing to make good, tough choices and not lie about them in order to advance themselves politically. I applaud both Senators Warner and Chambliss for taking this step and I hope that other politicians will follow suit and place our country's future first.