BOB MOON: A couple of senators have come up with a plan for turning back the tide of debt — a bipartisan commission with some special clout. Nancy Marshall Genzer reports.

NANCY MARSHALL GENZER: Nobody on Capitol Hill has been able to come up with a way to let the air out of ballooning budget deficits...

The chairman and ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee have agreed on the framework for a bill that would create a bi-partisan budget commission. If the legislation is approved, the new panel would be chaired by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, and include the heads of congressional finance and budget committees. They'd have the equivalent of congressional superpowers — so-called "fast-track" authority.

Maya MacGuineas, of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, says that means limited debate, no time-consuming amendments and a straight up-or-down vote on the commission's proposals.

MAYA MACGUINEAS: The focus is to get people to say we've come up with a package that is kind of the best of all the solutions, and you have to vote yay or nay.

MacGuineas says the commission's "star power" could help it force Congress to make tough choices, such as . . . raising taxes.

MACGUINEAS: We're going to have to slow the growth in spending on both retirement benefits and health care benefits. And we're going to have to increase the revenues that support these programs. There's no real free lunches here to fixing these programs...

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