Erskine Bowles

Congress and the White House collectively have a short attention span.Stock markets have surged in the first half of 2013 and housing prices are climbing again, rebuilding much of the wealth lost during the recent financial crisis. One upshot of all that recreated wealth is that the U.S. deficit is now projected to creep lower over the next decade, a sharp turnaround from forecasts of the past few years.Ratings firm Standard & Poor's noted these positive signs Monday when it raised the U.S. outlook to stable from negative.Rather quickly these developments have allowed Congress and President Obama to move on from arguably the signature issue of the president's first term – the sharply divisive battle over government spending and the need for deficit reduction.For the past several years it's seemed as if the government was constantly careening toward one fiscal deadline or another. In each case, Armageddon was predicted as each side of the political spectrum attempted to use the deadline...

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