Needed: a good dose of CEO leadership: as Congress dithers, corporate leaders must step in. Here is what they could he doing.

• Author: Hindery, Leo, Jr.
• Position: IT (STILL

AS A COMPANY CEO or board member, how would you act if you were one of the 12 appointed members of the special Congressional committee that between now and November must try to find at least 31.2 trillion in savings from the federal budget?

How would you act differently if some of your co-members had already announced, as some of the Republicans have, that they'll not approve any new revenues from tax changes or reforms?

Almost every corporate officer has had to significantly cut back his company's operations at one point or another. Laying off workers, reducing budgets, shutting down struggling divisions--these are all tried and true methods in times of difficulty. But the difference between being just another slash-and-burn executive at a time of difficulty and being a real leader is whether you can responsibly cut spending when demanded while still positioning your company for future growth and success.

At a time when this country seems bereft of the political consensus it needs in order to dig out of its jobless recovery, which still sees 29 million workers unemployed in real terms, and to balance economic growth that resuscitates the middle class with the undeniable need to reduce our massive federal deficit, the time for complementary national CEO leadership has never been greater.

Meaningful resolution to the federal debt crisis was thwarted from day one by those members of Congress who refused to even consider closing egregious corporate tax loopholes and raising the now historically low taxes on the wealthiest Americans, So, in an inane compromise that threw any semblance of balance out the window, Congress simply chose to make devastating cuts that will further weaken the middle class, .All without any new revenues and all despite the fact that, as the New York Times reported in August, 63% of voters fully support raising taxes on households earning more than $250,000 a year.

It is up to us to now tell our dysfunctional Congress to stop saying "no" to responsible new taxes and tax reform. And at once, we should be demanding: large-scale long-term investment in national infrastructure through a new leveraged National Infrastructure Bank; "buy domestic" requirements that mirror those of the other major developed countries and China; trading with China, India, Taiwan and South Korea that is also "fair" and not just "free"; and government-incented employment programs for the nation's 5 million out-of-school unemployed youth.

The only...