Super Committee: Success or Failure?

American Thinker ^ | November 29, 2011 | Frank Ryan

[OwenKellogg]

In the Budget Control Act of 2011, Congress created the Super Committee. The Super Committee, technically called the "Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction," was chartered with the responsibility to "reduce the deficit by at least $1,500,000,000,000 over the period of fiscal years 2012 to 2021."

In the attempt to force a compromise on deficit reduction, the House and Senate decided to mandate specific cuts in defense and domestic programs to include Medicare, should the Super Committee not solve the deficit reduction problem. The total reduction spending cuts under various assumptions in the bill could amount to over $1.2 trillion starting in 2013.

Many have called the stalemate by the Committee a failure to compromise, with disastrous consequences to follow. The stock market reacted very negatively, and financial markets both here and abroad are in continued turmoil and flux.

The failure to "compromise" may, in fact, be the greatest success of the Super Committee. The stalemate is a philosophical one, not an operational one. At future is the very society we, as a people, are deciding upon. The decisions made today will determine our future and that of generations of Americans not yet born.

At stake is our national identity. It is a battle of ideals and not a battle of wills.

.....

A solution by the Super Committee would have been the true failure.

.....

At stake is what we as a people believe to be the best way to govern: allow individual determination, or rely on government to solve our problems? This is the argument which must be settled. A compromise may not be possible or even desirable.

[OwenKellogg]

The failure to "compromise" may, in fact, be the greatest success of the Super Committee.

[who knows what evil?]

Chuck Woolery's 'simian super committee' came up with the budget cuts in just a few minutes.

[pepsionice]

If you had selected twelve farmers from Iowa....they would have been cutting about $100 million per hour. It might have taken six weeks, but I doubt that they would have argued much about the work....and it would have all made sense.

Since none of these idiots are capable of cutting a budget...I’d suggest to just “contract-out” the next super-committee to farmers across the nation.

[chiefqc]

The Super Committee: A group of ego minded morons who had no real chance of doing anything except getting face time in front of the TV and wasting more tax payers money.

[fortheDeclaration]

There are no spending cuts.

[SkyPilot]

Entitlements were never on the table from the get go. Now, the Defense Dept is going to be raped beyond the $350 Billion in real cuts it has already taken.

Why does everyone think that Sen Murray, Barney Frank, and the Community Organizer were so elated the morning it was announced that the Joint Resolution Committee failed?

The Community Organizer even had a speech line ready that morning, vowing to veto any attempt to save our military, and laughing that there were "no off ramps" to save it either.

47% of Americans now receive a Government check, direct deposit, or EBT card.

Entitlements have broken our back as a nation - they are the reason for the debt explosion that will ruin our nation and lead to a global financial collapse. Defense spending is now at a near historic low (about 3% of Gross Domestic Product). During WW II it was 39%.

So, line up for your Social Security direct deposit, Medicare, Medicaid, Section 8 housing, and food stamps. Everyone else is. The problem you have is that were are heading off the cliff in 5th gear, and now the accelerator is pressed to the floor.

[OwenKellogg]

The problem you have is that were are heading off the cliff in 5th gear, and now the accelerator is pressed to the floor.

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Couldn’t agree more. This supports the author’s point that “Compromise at the wrong time and for the wrong reasons must be condemned.”

[sodpoodle]

Email received this a.m.

NO ONE I’VE HEARD HAS A VIABLE ANSWER TO REDUCING FEDERAL SPENDING, AND AS A WISE PERSON ONCE SAID. “IF WE ARE NOT CAREFUL, WE ARE GOING TO END UP IN THE DIRECTION WE’RE HEADED!”

The day the Democrats took over was not January 22nd 2009, it was actually January 3rd 2007, the day the Democrats took over the House of Representatives and the Senate, at the very start of the 110th Congress.

The Democratic Party controlled a majority in both chambers for the first time since the end of the 103rd Congress in 1995.

For those who are listening to the liberals propagating the fallacy that everything is “Bush’s Fault”, think about this...

January 3rd, 2007, the day the Democrats took over the Senate and the Congress:
The DOW Jones closed at 12,621.77
The GDP for the previous quarter was 3.5%
The Unemployment rate was 4.6%
George Bush’s Economic policies SET A RECORD of 52 STRAIGHT MONTHS of JOB CREATION!

Remember that day...
January 3rd, 2007 was the day that Barney Frank took over the House Financial Services Committee and Chris Dodd took over the Senate Banking Committee.
The economic meltdown that happened 15 months later was in what part of the economy?
BANKING AND FINANCIAL SERVICES!
THANK YOU DEMOCRATS (especially Barney ) for taking us from 13,000 DOW, 3.5 GDP and 4.6% Unemployment...to this CRISIS by (among MANY other things) dumping 5-6 TRILLION Dollars of toxic loans on the economy from YOUR Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac FIASCOES!
(BTW: Bush asked Congress 17 TIMES to stop Fannie & Freddie -starting in 2001 because it was financially risky for the US economy).
Barney blocked it and called it a “Chicken Little Philosophy” (and the sky did fall!)
And who took the THIRD highest pay-off from Fannie Mae AND Freddie Mac? OBAMA
And who fought against reform of Fannie and Freddie?
OBAMA and the Democrat Congress, especially BARNEY!!!!

So when someone tries to blame Bush...
REMEMBER JANUARY 3rd, 2007.... THE DAY THE DEMOCRATS TOOK OVER!”
Bush may have been in the car but the Democrats were in charge of the gas pedal and steering wheel they were driving the economy into the ditch.
Budgets do not come from the White House. They come from Congress and the party that controlled Congress since January 2007 is the Democratic Party.
Furthermore, the Democrats controlled the budget process for 2008 & 2009 as well as 2010 & 2011.

In that first year, they had to contend with George Bush, which caused them to compromise on spending, when Bush somewhat belatedly got tough on spending increases.

For 2009 though, Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid bypassed George Bush entirely, passing continuing resolutions to keep government running until Barack Obama could take office. At that time, they passed a massive omnibus spending bill to complete the 2009 budget.

And where was Barack Obama during this time? He was a member of that very Congress that passed all of these massive spending bills, and he signed the omnibus bill as President to complete 2009. Let’s remember what the deficits looked like during that period:
If the Democrats inherited any deficit, it was the 2007 deficit, the last of the Republican budgets. That deficit was the lowest in five years, and the fourth straight decline in deficit spending. After that, Democrats in Congress took control of spending, and that includes Barack Obama, who voted for the budgets.

If Obama inherited anything, he inherited it from himself.
In a nutshell, what Obama is saying is “I inherited a deficit that I voted for, and then I voted to expand that deficit four-fold since January 20th.”
There is no way this will be widely publicized, unless each of us sends it on!

“The problems we face today exist because the people who work for a living are outnumbered by those who vote for a living.”

[Dixie Yooper]

[Georgia Girl 2]

“The Super Committee: A group of ego minded morons who had no real chance of doing anything except getting face time in front of the TV and wasting more tax payers money.”

Not to mention completely unconstitutional. But so is about 50% of the legislation coming out of the two headed hydra in Wash. The Republicans are salivating at the chance to vote for this stuff. Only 2 republican senators voted agains’t the latest attempt to stifle our right to a trial.