Out of almost nowhere has come momentum for a proposal to create a bipartisan entitlement and tax commission to draft proposals to control the long-term costs of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. The idea would require the Congress to quickly vote the recommendations up or down via a super majority vote.

The idea isn't new -- proposals for a such a commission have been around for a longtime.

What is new is the bipartisan enthusiasm that is growing -- particularly in the Senate. Coming out of the Budget Committee, and Chairman Kent Conrad and Ranking Republican Judd Gregg, the idea is picking up bipartisan steam with, among others, Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell expressing general support for the idea.

A number of Senators have threatened to tie their votes to raise the deficit ceiling to establishing such a commission.

If the recent Democratic healthcare bills have made one thing crystal clear it is that the Congress is wholly incapable of dealing with cost containment under present circumstances.

Robert Laszewski blogs regularly at Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review.