Only the most gullible observers expected the debt reduction committee, lovingly known as the “super committee,” to accomplish its goal of $1.2 trillion in savings over the next 10 years. While the number may seem daunting, it’s important to remember the president’s last budget for a single year was $3.7 trillion. Cutting $1.2 trillion would only require a reduction of $120 billion per year, or less than one-thirtieth of the annual federal budget; yet this committee was doomed from the moment it was formed.
There was never an honest attempt to achieve the debt reductions agreed upon to raise the debt ceiling. This was just one more example of the poorly scripted soap opera we call our federal government. Today several members of the super committee hit the Sunday shows alternating between blaming each other and holding out one sliver of hope that was never there to begin with.
Without an act of God, the super committee will admit defeat Monday; however reaching an agreement was never in the cards. The politics of Washington, specifically the congressional and presidential elections of 2012 were the only agenda. Now the blame-game will be front-and-center as the Democrats blame the Republicans for the refusal to raise taxes on the rich, when the Republicans actually offered something no one ever expected they would: $600 billion in reductions to tax loop-holes and special-interest deductions; but the Democrats wouldn’t take yes for an answer, otherwise the president’s plan to run against a do-nothing Congress would ring hollow.
On Fox News Sunday, co-chairman of the Super Committee , Jeb Hensarling said, “Nobody wants to give up hope. Reality is, to some extent, starting to overtake hope.” Translation: we’re done.
President Barack Obama has demonstrated his intention for the committee to fail by strenuously avoiding any direct involvement in the talks. Instead of pulling the opposing sides together, the president has been on the campaign trail selling his jobs plan with even a mention of the debt committee. Failure has been the president’s plan from day one.
If the panel does not reach consensus, automatic spending cuts of $1.2 trillion over a decade are due to start in 2013. In reality, as has been the case for decade after decade, none of the automatic cuts will ever occur. Taxes go up, but cuts never happen. Give Washington more money and they will spend it, they will never use additional revenue to pay off the country’s debt.
Shortly after the creation of the committee, in the article Democrats selections for Debt Committee are intended to wage battle, not reduce the U.S. debt the plan for failure was explained. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi stacked the debt committee with the most liberal members they could locate. Harry and Nancy insured that an insistence on tax increases would scuttle any hopes of an agreement.
When did our government become so dysfunctional? Rick Perry recently said it’s time for Congress to become part-time; what Perry probably doesn’t realize is that Congress was in session for less than 100 days out of the past year. While they can’t do harm when they’re not on Capitol Hill, precisely what are we paying them for?
When this country was founded, Congress was not intended to be year-round full-time jobs. They were expected to return home and earn a living like the rest of us. They’ve now lost all concept of what it’s like to make a living, pay the bills and deal with real life. Term limits are not enough. They have failed us all. Even those who recently joined the Congress must realize that there is no longer a concept within the walls of the Congress to do the nation’s business; they are there to serve themselves.
Just this past Friday the government’s budget debt topped $15 trillion on Friday all the while the super committee members were making sounds that they would not allow the automatic cuts to kick in in 2013; yet through all this blatant deception not a single Occupy protest outside either the Senate or House offices. How pathetic are we?
Not a single White House official showed up on any of the Sunday talk shows, as the administration bathes in the light of a presidential campaign against Congress comes into focus. You can make up the campaign ads yourself; you don’t need a high priced political adviser to figure out where this is going. Just imagine the most unbecoming photos of Republican House and Senate leaders with the words playing in the background…“while the country was suffering, the Republicans only cared about tax breaks for their wealth donors. It’s time to change the Congress and give the president a responsible partner to solve the country’s problems.”
President Obama has stated that he would veto any attempt to block automatic cuts, even though his own defense secretary says the armed forces cannot afford to work with less; but since none of the cuts take place till after the election, Mr. Obama’s words carry little weight.
Following the words of Saul Alinsky, never to let a crisis go to waste, Nancy Pelosi didn’t bother waiting for the super committee to fail; in a fundraising letter sent Saturday, she said Republicans were thwarting progress on job creation and urged supporters to donate to get more Democrats in office in the 2012 elections.
It would’ve been more interesting had Pelosi explained precisely what she and the Democrat controlled House and Senate from 2008 – 2010 did to create jobs. The stimulus was an absolute failure. Obamacare has only created jobs in the government and likely caused the loss of thousands of jobs in the private sector. Not only won’t Pelosi let a crisis go to waste, she won’t allow the truth to dissuade her either.
We’re headed into the most divisive, honesty lacking election that this country has ever faced. Democrats have falsely labeled Grover Norquist, president of the conservative taxpayer advocacy group Americans for Tax Reform, a lobbyist; just one more lie intended to color Norquist as some evil one percenter. Norquist is famous for pressing GOP members to sign a no tax increase pledge and he’s now a symbol for the left-wing radicals; a role that certainly Norquist relishes. Democrats blame Norquist for insisting on the pledge and Republicans for living up to it. This election will be filled with calls from the Democrats for the wicked rich to pay their fair share, when the rich pay more than 70 percent of all taxes collected by the federal government; the liberals won’t tell you that fact, nor will they admit that 47 percent of all Americans pay nothing in taxes.
We stand at the precipice of a political civil war and the man who promised to put an end to the partisan bickering in Washington will marshal his troops to say anything, regardless of the facts, to secure a second term. The failure of the super committee falls right into his plans.