Sen. Warner tries to build support for debt plan

WASHINGTON

U.S. Sen. Mark Warner is waiting - not so patiently - for an opening.

For more than a year, he's worked to persuade Congress to adopt a comprehensive but politically charged plan to curb the growth of the national debt by $4 trillion over 10 years. It calls for a combination of deep spending cuts, changes in entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, and increases in revenue, including possibly curbing or ending some popular tax deductions.

He and several other senators weren't able to get traction in 2011 for that approach. Warner said he's heard the prudent strategy would be to put off addressing the national debt until after the November presidential election.

He disagrees.

"I didn't get the memo that said, 'When you become a senator, you take presidential election years off,' " he said.

Now, a small group of senators is close to finishing a draft version of a comprehensive debt reduction bill, he said.

It's not certain if or when they'll get sufficient support to bring it up for a vote in Congress.

On Tuesday, Warner is taking the first of several trips to attempt to sway business executives and community leaders to get behind the debt reduction effort. An event at Harvard University dubbed "The National Debt Tour: The Moment of Truth" is being organized by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan advocacy group. Warner will be joined by Dave Cote, chairman and CEO of Honeywell International.

In the coming months, Warner is to participate in similar events in New York and possibly Chicago.

"I'm trying to build a little bit of a road show here that says just because this is not getting talked about in Washington as much, we need business and community leaders around the country to continue to keep the pressure on," Warner said. Business leaders "can't continue to say 'Oh, that's important but not as important as my particular industry tax break.' "

The debt reduction plan favored by Warner and the bipartisan Senate study group, known as the Gang of Six, is based on the work of President Barack Obama's debt commission. Both groups have warned that Washington's failure to address the debt - now more than $15 trillion and growing - is endangering the economy and stalling job growth. The leaders of the debt commission, former Sen. Alan Simpson of Wyoming and Erskine Bowles, are expected to join Warner at the New York event along with Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The goal, Warner said, is to persuade Congress to pass the package in one bill. Given the divisiveness on Capitol Hill, a step-by-step approach to changing the tax system and adjusting federal spending won't work, he said. "Nobody trusts each other."

The optimistic view, Warner said, is that congressional leaders might be prodded to take up the issue in the spring if the Republican Party chooses its presidential nominee early this year. With the contest set between Obama and a Republican, both candidates might encourage Congress to act, he said.

Short of that, there's not a lot of outside pressure on Congress to address the debt early this year, Warner said.

Warner said if the European economy, driven by the crisis in Greece, substantially falters and endangers the United States, the chain of events could spur Congress to take fast action on a debt plan.

U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, a Georgia Republican who has worked closely with Warner, said short of a crisis, getting a debt plan approved before the November elections will be like "pushing a string uphill."

Chambliss and Warner contend the bipartisan debt plan will be easier for Americans to swallow than what is coming later this year if Congress fails to act.

When a congressional supercommittee failed in November to agree on how to cut spending and raise revenue to cut the debt, it triggered a process that requires at least $1.2 trillion in spending cuts over 10 years, with half the cuts in defense, starting next year.

If the automatic spending cut mechanism isn't undone, those defense cuts would be in addition to the $487 billion in reductions proposed last week.

Chambliss and Warner argue, as have Pentagon leaders, that those automatic cuts focus too much on defense and would harm the nation's security.

Warner argues that Congress is reaching the point where it can't put off the debt issue.

"The sooner we grapple with it, the less difficult it will be," he said.

Bill Bartel, 757-446-2398, bill.bartel@pilotonline.com