Posted on 11/21/2011 2:12:14 PM PST by illiac
The bipartisan congressional committee tasked with finding at least $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction announced on Monday it cannot reach agreement by the Wednesday deadline, a stark if not unexpected admission that its efforts have ended in failure.
"After months of hard work and intense deliberations, we have come to the conclusion today that it will not be possible to make any bipartisan agreement available to the public before the committees deadline," the co-chairs, Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said.
The declaration came late Monday afternoon in a written statement from the 12-member Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction despite last-second discussions in closed-door meetings.
The committee, in the end, could not resolve that Republicans would not go as far as Democrats wanted on allowing more revenue raisers, and Democrats did not want to move on entitlement reforms. Intense messaging by both political parties on which was more to blame is surely to spill out for days, if not months.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationaljournal.com ...
Agreed, the automatic cuts are a win/win for defenders of small government. Yes, the military-industrial complex takes a hit but so does the welfare state. Cuts of that magnitude will NOT happen any other way.
Obama doesn’t give a damn what Panetta thinks, just as he doesn’t give a damn about the military. All he cares about is how he can use this for the advantage of serving his political agenda. That way, if anything bad at all happens militarily, he can blame Republicans for it.
If you did that, you'd end up with a 'super committee' of RINOs and DINOs. The Democrats would approve Lisa Murkowski, Mark Kirk, Mary Bono Mack, Leonard Lance, Rodney Frelinghuysen, Walter Jones, and Olympia Snowe to "represent" our side, and the Republicans would approve Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson, Gabrielle Giffords (without aides to "help" her make decisions), Dan Lipinski, Jerry Costello, Heath Shuler, and Dan Boren to "represent" the 'RAT P.O.V. They'd come up with a "bipartisan" agreement all right, and it would worse than anything the two parties could come up with alone.
Obama wanted increased tax’s...he’s just using this committee as the stepping stone to getting those knowing from the get go they were’t positioned to do anything at all...it was just a tactic....buy some time out of the “ceiling” issue they were stuck in...but the whole idea was to stretch this out. Even Pelosi told her people right from the get go, under no circumstances were they to yeild at all on entitilements of any kind. It was dead before it got started...it was never intended to work out.
So now we hear Obama saying tax’s will go up next year BECAUSE Republicans wouldn’t yield....because Congress wouldn’t act...when in fact he staged the whole thing so he could point his finger somewhere other then himself...and it just might work.
Yep...it was Obamas way to get the tax's raised he could not get any other way...and despite the congress. We knew this when the "arrangements" were made known what would be the end game if they didn't reach an agreement....which was the game plan agreement to not agree....so the end result would be...raise tax's..cut the military....done deal. All the rest was just a show.
What is your REALISTIC alternative to the automatic cuts in Pentagon AND domestic spending? Curious minds want to know....and please don’t tell us that you want the clowns in Congress to cut domestic spending but leave the Pentagon alone. That is not a realistic alternative given the current Congress. IMHO, the only realistic alternative is higher spending for both the Pentagon and the welfare state and no cuts anywhere.
Fine! Then the best alternative for the GOP is to call his bluff and embrace the automatic cuts which, in his heart of hearts, Obama strongly opposes. If they do that, they can cut him off at the knees while at the same time avoiding the (accurate?) public perception that they are total shills for a bloated Pentagon budget. BTW, what is YOUR alternative?
Neither side ever intended to cut a deal. This is why I called my rep before the debt ceiling vote to urge he stand firm against raising the ceiling.
I called after the vote and told his staff that I'd be supporting Kevin Brady's opponent in the primaries.
I will call today to remind Brady's staff that he needs to look for another job!
There are two men chiefly responsible for this fiasco: Boehner and McConnell. You never let the opponent choose the field of battle. They, once again, walked with eyes wide open into a Democrat trap. Neither man is fit to lead.
What a waste of time and energy! As if everybody with half a brain knew that there would be no consensus. These people should have their checks garnished; they don’t deserve it. Any lawyers out there know how we can get them on dereliction of duty or malfeasance.
And isn’t about time that the RINOs, squishy mode moderates and communists to uniteunder the name of the BOHICA Party. Thyat’s all they do - stick it to we, the people.
Any talk of cutting $1 trillion in spending over the next decade is a very bad joke. My alternative is to man up and pass a budget for this year that is $1 trillion below last year's spending levels. I don't have a problem cutting $50 billion from the annual Defense budget right now. But I have a HUGE problem with allowing the current $1.5 trillion increase of all non-defense spending that has been in place since 2009 to continue.
We elected Republicans to stand up and put a stop to this nonsense. And so far, they have voted to raise the debt ceiling by almost $3 trillion. And they have allowed this unprecedented level of spending recklessness to continue. Our national debt has increased by $1 trillion over the last three months alone. It is finally time to shut it down.
Instead of Department of Defense they should call it the “Department of Policing the World on the USA Taxpayer Credit Card” for the benefit of world military industrial complex and lobbyists. Eisenhower and George Washington remain accurate with their opposition to MIC and to entangling alliances.
Every country that benefits from our military should be assessed a substantial fee. Except for defending our USA borders and ports the defense budget should be supported by these other nations, most of which are better off fiscally than the USA.
Witnessing the Republicans and the Democrats bicker over the U.S. debt is like watching two drunks argue over a bar bill on the Titanic.
Raising the debt ceiling was the agreement.
We should remember that.
GOP failed. Again.
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