Parents often find it useful to tell their children about
nonexistent creatures to instill habits of good behavior. It
seems that many political leaders are going the same route. How
else can one explain the repeated references to the Bowles-
Simpson commission report and its advice to the country on how
to reduce the deficit? The point here is a simple one: there was
no Bowles-Simpson commission report. There was no document that
commanded the necessary majority of commission members to be
adopted as an official report. This should be an easy one that
even Washington elites can understand. The Bowles-Simpson
commission, formally known as the National Commission on Fiscal
Responsibility and Reform, was a presidential commission created
in February of 2010. The two co-chairs were Morgan Stanley
Director Erskine Bowles and former Sen. Alan Simpson. Under the
rules established by President Obama, the commission was
supposed to issue a report by December 1, 2010. To be adopted, a
report had to have the support of