During last year's presidential campaign, all three candidates had plans to fix the economy, and each had its good points. The same is usually true of all the legislation that makes its way to the floor of the Senate or the House of Representative. But that's where progress is halted. As the Congress debates the bill, and as the press reports on the bill, a partisan label is attached. It becomes the Democrat bill or the Republican bill. And after all, isn't it the charter of each party to prevent passage of the other party's legislation? (Maybe it's not so stated, but it's strongly implied.)

An idea struck me during Campaign '92. I thought we should put Messrs. Bush, Clinton, and Perot in a room together, without any observers, and keep them there until they have agreed on a plan. If they need consultation, let them get it; but no word will escape the room if it will in any way identify who came up with or opposed any idea discussed. (I'm sure some of you were thinking I was going to suggest we lock them in the room and leave it at that. Shame on you.) Actually, it would be like the Camp David conference. President Carter moderated the discussions, and nothing was made public until all parties agreed on the total plan. There was never a discussion of who came up with what; only that there was agreement. It wasn't long before that that the world would have laughed at anyone who even thought such an agreement possible. The result was arguably one of the most successful agreements in history.

So when a bill is introduced, members of both parties should get together in private, bar any discussion outside the room, and hammer out a satisfactory bill. Anyone who looks for personal credit, or to place individual blame, will have his parking space at National Airport turned into a shelter for the homeless.

Next, the bill will be passed, in private, to the other house. Members of both houses will be assigned to produce a bill satisfactory to both houses. Then a representative from the Administration will be brought in, and the final bill will be assembled. It can then pass both houses, and be signed by the President, without anyone being worried about losing face.

There's a side benefit, also. Because no one will know where each committee member stands on specifics until the vote has been taken, and in fact since the specifics won't even be made public during the committee process, the special-interest lobbyists won't have as much opportunity to identify and target individual congressmen until after the vote.