Indiana Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh's preferred method of starting to deal with the monstrous federal debt could be somewhat problematic.

He wants a bipartisan commission established that would be able to recommend specific budget cuts and/or tax increases to reduce the deficit and start tackling the debt. Congress would have to vote up or down on the recommendations - no amendments would be allowed. That would put enormous power in the hands of unelected officials, who might come up with proposals a majority of the American people would find too drastic or harmful.

But give Bayh credit for being serious about the debt, which is now a staggering $12 trillion and growing by the second. He says he won't support an increase in the debt ceiling (the ninth one since 2001!) unless such a commission is established.

And maybe the senator is right that the time is right for an “institutional insurrection” against the way Congress handles fiscal matters.

“Many of us count ourselves as pragmatists, not idealists; moderates, not extremists,” he said before the Senate Budget Committee on Tuesday. “Yet here we are, asking for a change in the way business is done in Washington.”

The idea has growing support in the Senate from the likes of Republicans George Voinovich and Judd Gregg, Democrat Kent Conrad and Independent Joe Lieberman. If a dent is going to made in the debt - the interest on which alone could cost $4.8 trillion between 2010 and 2019 - some hard decisions have to be made, as senators told CNN: how to rein in spending on Medicare and Social Security; how high to raise taxes on everyone, not just those making $250,000 or more; and which government-funded programs to cut in part or altogether.

Members of Congress seem unable or unwilling to make the hard choices. In fact, with monstrous programs such as health care reform and cap- and-trade moving through the legislature, it seems likely that the hard choices - things we can't afford but keep adding - are just going to keep piling up.

Frankly, most voters don't even seem to want the hard choices made. We keep electing those politicians because they keep giving us the programs and benefits we want, don't we? Maybe we need an independent commission to start protecting us from ourselves.

With their reluctance to vote for another increase of the debt ceiling, a growing number of skeptical legislators finally have the clout to make their fiscal demands be paid attention to. Even if no commission is established, attention is at least being focused on the deficit and the debt. It is a debate we cannot afford not to have.