Congressional Super Committee

I tell ya I was just shocked that the GOP's picks ended up being all white guys.
Does anyone actually think there can be any chance at compromise when every one of the Repubs named have previously signed Norquist's No taxes pledge? I don't.
Thoughts?

Would have been more fair to pull names out of a hat.

Perhaps the most qualified individuals were selected regardless of ethnic background.

Robin Banks wrote:

Perhaps the most qualified individuals were selected regardless of ethnic background.

Not one qualified female or minority in the Republican party? How sad.

I'm sure that all the members of the committee are "qualified," no matter which party they belong to... I just hope that they find a way to get the job done.

Working as hard as ever to keep the economy from recovering...

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House Speaker John Boehner's office said yesterday "Deficit reduction will spur job creation and, therefore, the supercommittee does not need to take on an additional mission."

What every economist thinks

Neil DeGrasse Tyson pointed something out on Bill Maher last week that I thought was interesting:

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Doesn't it require that you're actually making something in order to have job creation? What are we making today? It's all being made in China.

It makes sense. We continue to move to a service economy, outsourcing our manufacturing jobs. This is especially hurtful when the majority of the population lacks discretionary funds. We know demand's down, and businesses and job creation is suffering. I don't understand how less taxes on the "job creators" who already have it really, really good is supposed to work, especially when "spending cuts" translates to more layoffs, and less safety nets keeping such families afloat. At what point will these "job creators" finally get around to creating job here rather than overseas?

Scorpion wrote:

I'm sure that all the members of the committee are "qualified," no matter which party they belong to... I just hope that they find a way to get the job done.

Looks like John Kyl-R has already staked out his position on compromising...It's called "My way or the highway"

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Sen. Kyl says would quit US debt panel if defense cut

Thu Sep 8, 2011 2:55pm EDT

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(Reuters) - U.S. Senator Jon Kyl, a Republican member of the "super committee" deficit-reduction panel in Congress on Thursday said he would quit the panel if new defense spending cuts are considered.

Kyl made the comments in a session sponsored by conservative think tanks including Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute. He made the comments shortly after the super committee held its first meeting in an effort to find $1.2 trillion in new government savings over 10 years.

"I'm off of the committee if we're going to talk about further defense spending," Kyl said he has told super committee colleagues.

A $917 billion deficit-reduction deal enacted in early August included $350 billion in security program cuts, which includes defense spending.

This "Super Committee" has disaster written all over it. Maybe we need a "Super Duper Committee".

Artie60438 wrote:

Does anyone actually think there can be any chance at compromise when every one of the Repubs named have previously signed Norquist's No taxes pledge? I don't.

Bipartisan deficit panel spinning its wheels

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Democrats won't go for an agreement that doesn't include new tax revenue; Republicans are just as ardently antitax. The impasse over revenues means that Democrats won't agree to cuts to popular entitlement programs like Medicare.

Why do they need a "Super-Committe" to overlook a regular crowd of politicians?

Many lobbyists used to work for lawmakers on deficit panel

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2011-10-09/supercommittee-deficit-panel-has-many-ties-to-lobbyists/50713626/1

Thirty-four former aides to members of the deficit-cutting "supercommittee" have lobbied on behalf of hospitals, drugmakers and other health care industries, according to a tally of congressional lobbying data through June prepared for USA TODAY by the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics. Four have worked as registered lobbyists on behalf of defense companies. An additional 28 have lobbied for both sectors.
That adds up to about 60% of the 109 current and former federal lobbyists who have worked for panel members.
STORY: Fearing cuts, interest groups take lobbying local


Lobbying push

Many former aides to members of the deficit-cutting “supercommittee” have become lobbyists.

Committee members/Ex-aides who have worked as lobbyists:

• Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont: 26
• Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.: 17
• Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.: 15
• Sen. John Kyl, R-Ariz.: 10
• Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich.: 8
• Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif.: 6
• Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa./6
• Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio: 5
• Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich.: 5
• Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C.: 4
• Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas: 4
• Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.: 3
Source: Center for Responsive Politics

Same old crap.

happy jack wrote:

chuckmo48 wrote:

happy jack wrote:

Not one qualified female or minority in the Democrat party either, but that didn't stop them from securing seats on the committee.

Forgot in your neo's world it is only white men that are qualified...

Sorry, chuckmo - didn't mean to offend you. No qualified white men over there, either.

Ditto. Just the same ole'crooked cronies. Crooks watching over crooks. They come in all colors.

Super Committee Negotiations Now About How To Fail Gracefully

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A highly placed Democratic source weighs in on the current state of Super Committee negotiations.

“Conversations are still happening, but its mostly about how to put this thing to bed,” the aide says.

In other words, the ongoing conversations are mainly about putting the best face on failure rather than finding actual agreement.

This will come as no surprise to anybody who’s been following the committee’s progress (or lack thereof) over the last couple weeks. And it doesn’t preclude the slim possibility that the panel will agree on at least a small package of budget cuts before Monday. Other sources say they’re holding out hope for a last minute come-to-Jesus moment (for Democrats this means Republicans agreeing to significant new tax revenues). But it’s as close to a death knell as we’ve seen so far.

Man, do you believe the nerve of these guys?

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Before Obama took to the podium, congressional Republicans already had issued statements vowing to cancel out the $600 billion in automatic cuts. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), Senate Armed Services Committee Ranking Member John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Lindsey Graham all promised to craft plans to void those reductions.

Obama addressed such promises directly, saying he had an answer for them: "No," the president said sternly.

Obama threatened to veto any bill Congress sends him that seeks to void the automatic defense cuts or an equal amount of domestic spending cuts.

Obama: I'll veto any legislation that would void Defense cuts

The GOP was the party that was supposedly so concerned about the deficit that they wouldn't agree to raising the debt ceiling (to pay for debts already incurred) unless the Democrats agreed to this "super-committee" in the first place. The whole reason for the "automatic cuts" was to make sure that the deficit would be cut even if the committee failed.

Now they want to void the agreement? What a bunch of fucking weasels. It's pretty clear who is responsible for the failure of this committee , isn't it? It's obvious at this point that the GOP had no intention of fulfilling their side of the bargain, no matter how things turned out.

The bottom line is that the Republicans simply have no honor. First, they didn't want to pay the debts that they had already agreed to pay, and now they want to go back on their word when things didn't turn out the way they wanted them to...

And these are the same people who lecture the rest of us about "personal responsibility?" Give me a frickin' break!

I'm happy the way this turned out. Obama didn't cave and now the Repubs can try running on extending the Bush tax cuts for people earning more than like say $250,000 a year.