The new Congress has barely unpacked its bags in Washington and already it's clear that voters' concerns about excessive spending are having an impact. The House is set to pass rules that would, for the first time, include entitlement programs in the mix of spending increases for which an accounting must be made. Any such increases would require a corresponding spending cut somewhere else.
They also are poised to change the way the long-term costs of a program would be scored over time, making it harder to hide deficit spending. The old rules, for instance, allowed the White House to claim that President Barack Obama's health care reform plan actually would cut the deficit. That was because it allowed Congress to count only six years of costs against 10 years of revenue.
These and other rules changes are giant steps in the right direction. When it comes to one giant looming battle, however, the Republican majority in the House should tread carefully. Some time in the spring, the government will find it necessary to increase the nation's debt ceiling, which currently is $14.3 trillion, in order to pay its bills. Some Republicans are predicting a political showdown and vowing to not budge unless they can extract meaningful spending cuts from Democrats.
That is a dangerous game. Republicans played it in 1995, shutting down much of the government for several days, and lost. President Bill Clinton emerged from that with an enhanced public stature that helped carry him through his re-election campaign the next year. Standing on principle works best when that principle is supported by a credible plan for how things should be run instead.
So far, no such plan has emerged. The president's own deficit commission came the closest last year when 11 of its 18 members signed onto a plan that combined spending cuts to a wide array of programs, including the military, with closing tax loopholes and raising federal gasoline taxes. It included things neither major party wants to support, but it was an honest and serious effort to close a budget deficit of more than $1 trillion and to set the nation on the path to solvency.
Where is the GOP's plan? South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham has talked about holding the debt ceiling hostage until the other side agrees to increase the retirement age under Social Security. His colleague, South Carolina Sen. Jim Demint, speaks of a showdown with the president as the only way to force spending cuts.
But unless those spending cuts are specific — unless there is a comprehensive, long-term plan to counter the past several years of deficit spending — a standoff would look a lot like a temper tantrum that puts the nation's solvency at risk. That might ruin what has been a promising start to the 112th Congress.