Washington

THE Congressional “super committee” charged with finding $1.5 trillion in debt savings through 2021 is under growing attack from both the left and the right for carrying out most of its work in secret. As Senator Kelly Ayotte, a New Hampshire Republican, said recently, “We don’t get a better result for the people of this country when things are done behind closed doors.”

But greater openness by the panel, officially known as the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, would actually be harmful to the public interest. Private meetings are essential to give the committee’s six Republicans and six Democrats the freedom to step away from party orthodoxies, conduct serious negotiations and search for common ground, rather than engage in political posturing.

For the committee’s recommendations to be voted on in the full House and Senate, 7 of the 12 committee members must agree on them. If all of the meetings were held in public — as a number of lawmakers and open-government advocates propose — the prospects for such agreement would drop from slim to none.

History reveals the importance of extensive private talks for members of a bipartisan group to get to know one another and pursue compromises. Eleven of the 18 members of President Obama’s fiscal commission endorsed a $4 trillion deficit reduction package, but only after months of private deliberations. When the panel did hold public hearings, they resulted in partisan grandstanding about fiscal stimulus and health care reform.