Kent Conrad’s last stand on debt

Sen. Kent Conrad has been the Democrats’ balanced-budget guy for more than a decade, and the job takes a toll. His wife paints the North Dakotan as a lonely Cassandra with Power Point slides, warning of a debt-ridden future liberals and conservatives alike would rather ignore.

The past two years have been especially stressful. Conrad almost single-handedly forced President Obama to create the commission known as Bowles-Simpson, which produced a debt-reduction plan now hailed as a model of bipartisan compromise on taxes and government spending. Conrad then spent months working with like-minded senators to build support for the plan and bring it to a vote.

His efforts failed — and annoyed party leaders. White House officials say Conrad inadvertently muddied their own budding budget deal with House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) — worried, Democrats said, that Conrad was too eager for an agreement with Republicans — excluded him from last-ditch talks undertaken by a specially-created “supercommittee” last fall.

“I watched his predecessors [on the Budget Committee]. It was always the same thing. After so many years of doing this, they found themselves walking to a vote, and those on the left are mad at them and those on the right are mad at them. And you just have to keep plugging along,” she said. “But there aren’t that many people who say this is the more moderate, shall I say, middle-of-the-road way to get the job done. And at some point, you look at that and say, ‘I don’t know. I’m not sure I’m convincing enough people anymore.’ ”

Conrad’s critics say that’s true. With Democratic leaders determined to shore up the social safety net with higher taxes and Republicans just as determined to shrink government and cut taxes, they say Conrad’s quest to quietly assemble a bipartisan accord on the budget has been both fruitless and a distraction from the direct clash of ideas necessary to help voters choose a path forward.

“There’s no Democrat who knows the budget like he does. When he and I talk, we wind up agreeing with each other. But I have been frustrated that he’s not been willing to put a plan out there and fight for it,” said House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.). “We shouldn’t be insulating this from the American public, trying to cut backroom deals on commissions or whatever. I think the process is moved forward if we put plans out for the public to see and defend our ideas.”

Liberal critics are equally tough. In November, Reid dismissed Conrad’s efforts to strike a deal with anti-tax Republicans as “just happy talk.” At the White House, Conrad and his elusive Gang of Six agreement became a standing joke.

“He wasn’t made for these times, in a lot of ways,” said one senior Democratic aide, speaking on condition of anonymity to candidly discuss a sitting senator. “It’s going to take an election to reset the terms of this debate.”

Building consensus