Denting the deficit

Before Dan Rostenkowski’s budget-cutting proposal becomes lost beneath a stack of Washington’s never-ending paperwork, it should be examined for its value beyond its ability to grab the attention of President Bush.

Like Sen. Moynihan’s bold Social Security idea, Rostenkowski’s plan asks the country to take a difficult path toward reducing federal fiscal irresponsibility. Its unpopularity may be exceeded only by its necessity.

Rostenkowski’s plan, if nothing else, puts aside partisan politics to reduce the deficit. It calls for a one-year freeze Social Security increases, a one-year spending freeze, except for programs essential for helping the poor, and significant cuts in military spending. For revenue, the proposal would raise taxes for gasoline, cigarettes, beer and wine, and raise the income-tax rate for the wealthiest taxpayers from 28 percent to 33 percent, the level now paid by some who are less wealthy.

With a stratospheric popularity rating that makes Washington seem like Happy Valley, President Bush may be reluctant to change his no-new-taxes stand, but he must endorse drastic budgetary changes if the country is to release itself from the federal deficit during this decade.

Rostenkowski, whose frugality was questioned when he vigorously campaigned for congressional pay raises, may not have produced a perfect solution to the nation’s debt troubles, but his plan offers substance over slogans. In Washington, that’s considered a daring start.