ARI SHAPIRO, host:
Here in Washington, people often talk about cutting the federal budget, but actually doing it is rare.
David Wessel joins us now to discuss whether this year will be different. He's economics editor of The Wall Street Journal and a frequent guest on this program.
Morning, David.
Mr. DAVID WESSEL (Economics editor, The Wall Street Journal): Good morning, Ari.
SHAPIRO: So the White House and Congress right now are trying to keep government from shutting down for lack of funding in just over a week. But there's also this long-term debate about next year's budget and the deficit. Any progress on that front?
Mr. WESSEL: Yeah. You're right. There's a big fight now over how much to spend on annual appropriations for the current fiscal year, which is a fight that involves tens of billions of dollars. But there is, behind the scenes, a lot of talk what to do about the federal budget deficit, which is expected to be $1.6 trillion this year. And behind the scenes, it involves a number of people in the Senate, which usually is known for doing nothing. But Saxby Chambliss, a Republican from Georgia and Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia, have a little band of people together aimed at this bigger long-term deficit issue, using as a template for their conversations, a report that a presidential commission offered at the end of last year.
SHAPIRO: Yeah, that report came out with a big splash, but it doesn't look like the Republicans or the president have really adopted its proposals. Any role, now, for that commission?
Mr. WESSEL: Yeah. And I think that's one of the things that's interesting. The two co-chairman of the commission, Erskine Bowles, who was a chief of staff to Bill Clinton and Alan Simpson, who's a Republican senator from Wyoming, are now launching a campaign. They're calling it Moment of Truth. They were testifying on the Capitol Hill yesterday. They had a press conference to announce their campaign. They're recruiting businessmen, and columnists, and budget wonks, and former members of Congress to come with them to kind of keep the pressure on the politicians to do something about the deficit, figuring that somehow there's a lot of public worry about the debt that can be used as a lever to get the politicians to deal with these long-term spending and tax questions.
SHAPIRO: Okay. So you've talk about this bipartisan group on the Hill, working on this issue, what's the White House doing on the debt and the deficit?
Mr. WESSEL: Publicly, the White House has been very quiet. There seems to be some disagreement inside the Obama team about how much political capital to put into this fight right now. But there's been a lot of criticism of the president for not showing more leadership, as critics say, by embracing some or all of this plan that the commission he, after all, appointed - came up with. So I think what's going on is some of his people are encouraging these talks but they're standing back, waiting to see if it goes anywhere, before they run and get in front of it. It won't happen without the president signing on. And I think the Democrats in the Senate, in particular, will be waiting to see if the president is with them on this. And if not, nothing will happen.
SHAPIRO: Just briefly, what do you think that trigger will be, to finally move this from debate and discussion into actual action on legislation?
Mr. WESSEL: Well, Mr. Bowles and Mr. Simpson say we have to do this because if we don't the bond market will have a revolt, so that's always one thing that could happen. But I think, in more likely, is that this will get attached to legislation that's required to increase the limit on the federal debt. This is a very controversial thing. It's hard for members to vote for, and they'll vote for if they - some of them may vote for it if they think they can attach to it some kind of framework for dealing with the deficit. So if anything is going to happen this year, it's likely to be associated with this must-pass legislation on the debt ceiling.
SHAPIRO: That's David Wessel of The Wall Street Journal. Thanks a lot.
Mr. WESSEL: You're welcome.
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