Congressman Jim Cooper launched another salvo in his battle against the national debt last week, when he filed a bill to create a new commission to look at the country’s financial problems.

The Nashville Democrat has long criticized the federal government for not accurately portraying the nation’s deficit, estimated to be about 158-billion dollars this year. He says the long term costs associated with Social Security and Medicare aren’t accounted for in that figure. Called the SAFE commission, Cooper hopes it will look at accounting and other spending issues.

“The commission has a very broad mandate. It can look at entitlement programs like Medicare or Social security, but also at tax expenditure programs, those are tax loopholes. And those are huge every year and largely hidden. And finally it can look at different tax revenue approaches so that we can have a better income tax, because no one likes our current tax system.”

Republican Congressman Marsha Blackburn says action is needed, not “more studying of the issue.” She says she hasn’t yet looked at Cooper’s proposal, but says cutting the budget would be a good start.

“I have three bills I file every single year; one calling for a one percent, one calling for a two percent and one for five percent across the board. That is the fastest way to make people put a pencil to the paper and make reductions.”

Similar bills have been filed on a number of occasions, but this time, Cooper says his bill has the bi-partisan support of both the House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, and Minority Leader John Boehner. Cooper’s proposal is also sponsored by Republican Congressman Frank Wolf of Virginia.