Things are moving forward on a plan to create a panel (CQ, $) of legislators who'd come up with proposals to curb long-term fiscal problems. If created, the commission will no doubt propose legislative packages of "tough choices," a euphemism for painful legislation that'll cut benefits here and raise taxes there, with the intention of reducing the long-term budget imbalance, but not producing any tangible benefit for the public. Now, who knows? Maybe on balance they'll be progressive packages. But why should the public suffer AT ALL for the greatest failure in domestic politics this last half-century- the failure to create an efficient, universal health care system? It's our inhumane, wasteful, for-profit health care system that's mainly driving up the long-term budget imbalance. It's Congress's responsibility to make our system better, but they haven't. The public never demanded health care it couldn't afford. It never refused to pay for Medicare or Medicaid. Budget problems in these programs occurred as a result of Congressional dysfunction and inaction. The government has let their costs get out of control by not reforming the system. It's Congress's fault for letting us rack up huge budget imbalances. The public should not have to pay for Congress's mistakes. Instead of just cutting benefits and raising taxes, Congress ought to do its job and make our health care system work better and cheaper for everyone.