What next, now that the congressional supercommittee has failed? Depressingly, the answer is: not much, at least in the short term. Absent some intervening, cataclysmic event, the debt-reduction can has been kicked once again — this time, until after the election. At that point, the Bush tax cuts will be on the verge, once again, of expiring — at the end of December 2012. Unless it is defused, the mandated ”trigger” of $1.2 trillion in automatic cuts, spread evenly between domestic and military spending, will take effect in January 2013.
Can the political system rouse itself, in the face of those threats, to avert the harm? The lesson of the supercommittee is not a happy one. Endowed with special procedural protections to operate by a simple majority and speed its product to the House and Senate floor, the committee found itself paralyzed nonetheless. The gridlock, it turns out, was not a product of procedural failings in the system; it was a result of ideological rigidity.
Individual actors in the latest drama tried to rewrite the inevitable ending. Some Republicans began the process of accepting the need for new tax revenue, offering up a package that would total $300 billion more over the next decade than would be collected if the Bush tax cuts remained in effect. That was a welcome step but nowhere near enough, especially at the cost of locking in the nearly $4 trillion revenue loss of keeping the rest of the tax cuts in place.
The balance necessary for a debt reduction deal was way out of whack. Some Democrats, for their part, were willing to accept entitlement cuts, including a change in the formula for calculating cost-of-living increases for Social Security checks and cuts for Medicare beneficiaries.
That the lawmakers were nonetheless unable to reach agreement does not bode well for future negotiations. The 2012 election may produce a change in the occupant of the White House and control of one or both houses of Congress, but it is not likely to produce a clear mandate for either party’s vision of debt reduction.
— Washington Post
Comments (4)
Add commentIs anyone really surprised?
No one on either side of the aisle can agree on anything. And it is not just Congress. Just read the postings on this forum or any newspaper on-line. Tea Party and OWS have similiar wants, but they couldn't agree on anything anymore than those in politics. Ideology is a fine thing but not to the point of chocking the country nor ticking off your political base, which both sides are doing. If the building was on fire, they would argue as to whose fault it was and what the best course of action would be to solve the problem; all the while burning to death. What ever happened to COMPROMISE?
Unless we fix our corrupt way
Unless we fix our corrupt way of financing elections with public financing it's only going to get worse.
We are the problem
Everyone knows we need to make changes in Medicare and SS, cut defense spending, and raise revenues to REALISTICALLY address our debt. Why are we the problem you ask...well, if any candidate did that we'd all be mad about it that we'd throw a fit and vote them out of office.
We demand fixes, but we show our anger with our elected officials at the ballot box when they make any cuts that effect us or any raise in taxes that effect us.
We need a President and Congressmen/women that are willing to make the tough choices...and then be rewarded by making those tough choices for bringing them back for another (multiple) terms.
Those that pass the buck need to be removed in the next election.
It's time to kick THEIR can
It's time to kick THEIR can down the road and while we're at it take away their retirement and taxpayer subsidized health care.