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Feb. 8, 2013
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Jewish World Review
Nov 21, 2011
/ 24 Mar-Cheshvan 5772
Brilliant strategy? Action by inaction
By
Dale McFeatters
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
The 12-member six Democrats, six Republicans "supercommittee" is supposed to produce a plan to lower the federal deficit by $1.2 trillion over the next decade.
While one should never say never in Washington, it's not going to happen. The necessary political center is just not there. So what will happen if the panel fails in its mission? Nothing, at least in the short-term.
Each side will blame the other for the failure. The Democrats will say accurately that the Republicans flatly refuse to consider tax hikes, and the Republicans, with equal accuracy, will say the Democrats refused to entertain significant cuts to the major entitlement programs, Social Security and Medicare.
Periodically there would be reports that the supercommittee was close to an agreement but each time it fell apart and always for the same reasons. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., thought he had a deal: $776 billion in spending reduction, including major cuts in health-care programs, and $401 billion in new tax revenues.
But Democrats were skeptical that those new revenues, to be achieved through largely unspecified individual and corporate tax "reforms," would ever materialize. They had reason to be doubtful. The Bush tax cuts were passed with the commitment they would expire after 10 years. When the time came, Congress reneged, and the Republicans refused to even consider letting the cut for high-income earners expire.
The supercommittee is the fifth attempt in the last 12 months to formulate an attack on the deficits, which now cumulatively total more than $15 trillion. There was the report of the president's Bowles-Simpson commission, which would require more political courage than most White Houses and Congresses can muster. There were the talks between Vice President Joe Biden and House GOP leader Eric Cantor, which fell apart when Cantor, a hardliner on tax increases, walked out. The Senate Gang of Six went nowhere.
The most promising effort was in July when President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner seemed close to a "grand bargain" of $4 trillion, later scaled back to $2 trillion, but Boehner was unable to sell it to his own House members.
With no agreement, $1.2 trillion in across-the-board cuts are to go into effect automatically but not until 2013. In principle, the two parties could still reach agreement before then but that's unlikely because 2012 is an election year.
And those cuts are nowhere near as automatic as the lawmakers make them sound. One Congress cannot bind successor Congresses to a course of action. The new Congress could simply chuck the across-the-board cuts and start anew on its own deficit reduction plan.
It all depends on who the voters send to Washington in next November's congressional elections, and ultimately that's where and how the deficit problem will be resolved unless the voters, like their elected representatives of the last 12 years, decide they prefer the problem to any of its possible solutions.
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Previously:
• 11/18/11They're going to eat horses, aren't they?
• 11/17/11 A pretend stick shift for pretend drivers
• 11/16/11 Clinton's vast experiences: Did NBC pick the wrong Chelsea?
• 11/15/11 Occupy protesters, you've made your point. Now, scat
• 11/10/11 Our vets are a national problem?
• 11/09/11 Requiem for a once-great sport
• 11/08/11 A toilet as smart as its occupant
• 11/07/11 Prerevolutionary gems in need of TLC
• 11/04/11 Feds must stop scam of stealing from dead children
• 11/03/11 Bank listens very closely to customer lynch mob
• 11/01/11 TV that's leading the people away from core socialist values
• 10/31/11 NATO should not be a victim of its success
• 10/28/11 Iran mulls getting rid of president and presidency
• 10/27/11 Bienvenidos a Dayton and bring your businesses with you
• 10/26/11 Archivists long for Obama's teleprompter
• 10/25/11 United Nations to run the Internet?
• 10/24/11 Attention, world: You've got the cash. We've got the houses
• 10/19/11 Oil pipeline must be in America's future
• 10/18/11 U.S. plans limited mission in an Africa with no limits
• 10/17/11 Social Security's grave mistakes
• 10/12/11 NASA's help-wanted sign for astronauts
• 10/10/11 Saving Thomas Jefferson''s chimneys
• 10/06/11 Uncle Sam's answer to deadbeats --- robo-calls
• 10/04/11 Christie should ignore jibes on his weight
• 10/03/11 Iran says its warships will head for Jersey shore
• 09/29/11 Europeans bristle at Obama's lectures
• 09/28/11 Jessica Rabbit for the defense
• 09/27/11 Russia learns outcome of next March's presidential election
• 09/26/11 Another try at leaving no child behind
• 09/23/11 This generation needs a job more than a name
• 09/22/11 In the lane next to you: A driverless car
• 09/20/11 Cloudy, cool, chance of falling satellite
• 09/14/11 Humanitarian extortion
• 09/13/11 Paging Dr. Watson; he's there in 3 seconds
• 09/09/11 Forecasting 100 percent chance of heavy metal
• 09/08/11 A jobs program at Obama's doorstep
• 09/07/11 Iran's government afraid of the water
• 09/06/11 Congress returns, tanned, rested and testy
• 09/05/11 Space nations must clean up after themselves
• 09/02/11 Osama bin Laden died a failure and he knew it
• 09/01/11 Time to retire political pie in the face
• 08/31/11 Labor Day celebrates what, exactly?
• 08/30/11 These arrestees really are framed
• 08/25/11 When in an earthquake, block traffic
• 08/23/11 A case for discretion in deportation arrests
• 08/22/11 Tough times or not, parents shell out for school
• 08/18/11 Being unpleasant for fun, profit, promotion
• 08/17/11 Time to prepare for the end game in Libya
• 08/16/11: Super Committee starts facing reality
• 08/15/11: World's fastest plane disappears even faster
• 08/12/11: British cops track rioters through security cameras
• 08/11/11: Relax. There is no Death Star
• 08/10/11: House pages run final errands
• 08/09/11: U.S. treading water on job creation
• 08/08/11: Uncle Sam, the world's permanent guest
• 08/05/11: Most 9/11 victims not on federal death records
• 08/04/11: Russian PM calls U.S. a parasite. He should be so lucky
• 08/03/11: Congress goes from one bind to another
• 08/02/11: D.B. Cooper may no longer be a mystery
• 08/01/11: Libya's latest weapon against NATO --- lawsuits
• 07/29/11: He'll always be known as Hot Wheels Handler
• 07/25/11: Recruiting children to save a dying town
• 07/22/11: Bachmann's admirable medical candor
• 07/12/11: Social Security's grave mistakes
• 07/08/11: Debt crisis need not be constitutional crisis
• 07/07/11: Startups entice new talent with kickball, treehouses
• 07/05/11: Stranded tourists get rare treat
• 06/30/11: The dollar Americans refuse to spend
• 06/27/11: The hangman doesn't cometh
© 2011, SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE
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