Will the Super Committee Do Their Job?

The so called congressional “super committee” of 6 Democrats and 6 Republicans has been holed up in secrecy since they were assigned the task of coming up with a way to cut at least 1.2 trillion dollars over 10 years by November 23^rd. There have been two public broadcasts of the hearings, but in general the public hasn't gotten to see what is going on. However, lobbyists have been freely accessing committee members. In fact, the committee has received nearly 180,000 submissions from lawmakers, advocacy groups and ordinary Americans.

So will they be able to do their job and come up with some reasonable recommendations by the November 23^rd deadline? At this point it is looking very doubtful. The Republicans want to only make cuts to the budget, mainly to programs like social security, medicare and education. They insist on NO tax increases. NONE. To my knowledge, they remain immovable on that point. So how can they possibly come to any agreement?  The Democrats have offered plans with significant cuts in social security and medicare, but only if taxes on the wealthy are increased. So here we are at the same old impasse that we have been at for what seems like forever.

So this not so super committee will probably fail in its duty to find some reasonable compromise that both parties can live with simply because the Republicans will not budge about raising ANY taxes.  This is a ridiculous stance to take at a time when the country needs to get serious and not only cut spending but increase revenues as well.

If the committee  fails, there will be automatic cuts (sequestration) that will happen in 2013. The biggest cuts will be in the defense budget (about $60 billion a year) and Medicaid.  Tax rates will go back to the Clinton era taxes, since the Bush tax cuts will expire.   Just as S&P had lowered our credit rating because Congress didn't enact a clear debt reduction plan, Moody and Fitch could follow suit, and S&P could lower their rating some more. Who knows what effect that will have on an already fragile economy.

Hopefully this super committee will pull together and do their job. If they don't America will loose even more faith in what is proving to be a completely dysfunctional government.   It is clear that we should blame the unyielding Republicans for any consequences that may happen.