Unless a decent version of such a commission is created with a mandatory up-or-down vote (or with fiscally neutral amendments) in Congress on its recommendation (if it reaches agreement on one), I think today should stand as a notable day in the history of the nation when the most gutless, most self-serving, most irresponsible politicians sacrificed the nation’s future for the sake of their own political careers, and shamelessly lied while doing it. I say they lied because those Senators are politically sophisticated enough to know that it is simply not politically feasible to get anywhere close to solving our long-term fiscal imbalance problem either solely via reductions in projected spending or solely via taxing “the rich” (or that plus cuts in Defense plus supposed savings from healthcare “reform”), but they nevertheless opposed the commission on the basis that it would lead to tax increases or that it would lead to reductions in social spending or some component thereof (Social Security and/or Medicare). Anyone who thinks either ideologically pure approach is politically feasible is either delusional, ignorant, an idiot or a liar, and those Senators are the latter. GRRRRRR!! Tough to resist profanity when writing about those … .