Tanner: Closing Deficit Means Tough Calls More Than Tough Talk

A retired Tennessee Representative says the new Congress has to put tough talk aside and get practical if it’s serious about closing the budget gap. Democrat John Tanner served the district west of Nashville for two decades before deciding not to run again last fall.

Tanner says many freshman lawmakers got elected with tough rhetoric.

“People say that we can right our ship of state financially simply by cutting spending.”

But that kind of talk doesn’t get at the really difficult question of where to cut, Tanner says.

“Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, interest on the debt and national defense consume 85 cents out of every dollar. You could almost abolish the government as many people think of the government and you still couldn’t balance the budget.”

And Tanner says brokering a middle-of-the-road compromise in such delicate areas will be harder now, because there are fewer centrist Blue Dog Democrats to moderate. Last fall’s election cut the Blue Dogs’ ranks in half.