Fred Hiatt likes Rep. Frank Wolf’s idea to set up a commission modeled on the base-closing system. This would address issues of entitlements, taxes and the budget outside the reach of “interest groups and partisan elements.” Well, outside of representative government too. How about this instead: have a big debate (say in 2010) in which both parties present complete ideas for their plans on these subjects and then let everyone decide by a vote — all on the same day. It would, I think, be, sort of, Constitutional.

Perhaps the Post’s editorial team should  engage in more introspection. They endorsed candidate Barack Obama for president. Now they complain:

There you see that Obama proposes to spend, year after year, 23 or 24 percent of the national economy, while proposing to levy in revenue, year after year, only 18 or 19 percent. The result: the national debt, which is equal to 41 percent of the national economy today, will rise to 82 percent by the end of the next decade.

If this is what we can expect from the man who was elected on a promise of making “hard choices,” then Frank Wolf’s persistence should pay off. His proposed commission would represent the failure of our political system. But it’s needed.

Actually it is not. Elections have consequences. If the candidate turns out to have been a disappointment then the recourse is public debate, argument, campaigns, and elections. If the people agree with the Post then they’ll demand candidates — of both parties — get real. But the solution shouldn’t be to throw up our hands and ditch democracy. It is to elect responsible leaders and hold their feet to the fire. It’s worked, more or less, for 220 years.