Congressional “Supercommittee” created to resolve impasse over long-term federal budget fails to reach agreement.
In the latest sign that the American political system is parked in ideological gridlock, the Congressional Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction today admitted it had failed in its assignment to produce a long-term plan to substantially reduce the federal budget deficit.
The joint committee, commonly referred to as the Congressional “Supercommittee” was created last summer as part of the white-knuckled resolution to a vote to extend the federal debt ceiling. The agreement, then, was to enact $1 trillion in identified reductions to federal outlays over the next decade. This was supposed to be coupled with another $1.2 trillion in additional budget cuts and/or revenue increases. It was the Supercommittee’s task to agree upon the $1.2 trillion.
President Barack Obama responding to the "Supercommittee" impasse today.
They didn’t.
In a statement released earlier today by two Supercommittee members—Washington Senator Patty Murray and Texas Congressman Jeb Hensarling—the two at least agreed they were both “deeply disappointed” in the failure of the 12-member panel and in their “belief that the nation’s fiscal crisis must be addressed and that we cannot leave it to the next generation to solve.”
On paper, at least, the failure to reach agreement is supposed to result in automatic and pre-defined reductions in future outlays. According to the Associated Press the reductions that would occur between now and 2021 include:
•$454 billion in defense cuts.
•$294 billion in non-defense cuts
•A 2% reduction in Medicare outlays, resulting in a $123 billion savings.
But it isn’t just spending cuts that are implicated in the failure to reach a deal. Last December, as part of the resolution to yet another budget impasse, President Barack Obama agreed to a two year extension of the federal income tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003 by his predecessor, George W. Bush. The extension of the Bush tax cuts is estimated to add $120 billion to the federal debt over the next two years alone. However, without a deal on the deficit, the expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts by 2013 would, according to the Washington Post, add about $4 trillion dollars to federal coffers.
The announcement of the impasse, today, led to finger-pointing from leaders in both parties.
“There’s still too many Republicans in Congress who have refused to listen to the voices of reason and compromise that are coming from outside of Washington,” President Barack Obama said upon learning that the Supercommittee had given up. “ They continue to insist on protecting $100 billion worth of tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans at any cost, even if it means reducing the deficit with deep cuts to things like education and medical research. Even if it means deep cuts in Medicare. So at this point, at least, they simply will not budge from that negotiating position. And so far, that refusal continues to be the main stumbling block that has prevented Congress from reaching an agreement to further reduce our deficit.”
Obama added that he was firmly opposed to a move to undo the automatic spending cuts and he promised to veto a bill that would do so.
-CFJ
