"I, ________________, pledge to the American people, including Glover Norquist (are you listening?) that I will: ONE, respect the difficult work of the Congressional super committee on deficit reduction; TWO, encourage all members of the committee to continue working even if negotiations get heated; THREE, carefully consider all reports from the committee, both majority and minority; FOUR, avoid all grandstanding on the recommendations of the committee; FIVE, vote for the recommendations unless SIX, there's a damned good reason AND a better plan available that can pass both House and Senate; and SEVEN, verify within one year that the legislation I voted for actually reduced the deficit a non-trivial amount."
Any member of Congress could and should sign this pledge. Imagine--a bipartisan pledge. Another plus: any American can fulfill provisions 1-4. I wish I had thought of this pledge earlier, because we've already had a perfectly good committee working on this. Maybe there should be an EIGHTH provision: With apologies to Messrs. Bowles and Simpson, I will not squander this opportunity like the last one.
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