Tuesday, November 22, 2011

SuperCommittee Primer



(From apgov.org)

Watch from 1:00-6:00. Learn a little about the "Super Committee" for next week (may have a policy deliberation next Thursday). BTW, the "Super Committee" is a joint (House and Senate) select (members selected by the leaders of each chamber for a specific purpose) committee.


Boehner, Reid Duel Over Super Committee Failure in Op-Eds

(From National Journal)


House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., squared off in dueling USA Today op-eds over the super committee's failure to produce a plan to reduce the deficit, each blaming the opposing party for its refusal to compromise.


“I did everything possible to support the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction,” Boehner said.

Republicans, he added, made “good-faith offers,” even when not everyone in the party was enthusiastic about their content. Boehner blamed President Obama and Democrats who “insisted on dramatic tax hikes on American job creators.”

Reid, on the other hand, said that Republicans caved to the “tea party extremists and millionaire lobbyists” in their party. Democrats were ready to make a grand bargain, but Republicans refused to meet them halfway, Reid wrote.

The Senate majority leader said that he would oppose any efforts to walk back the automatic spending cuts that are scheduled to take place since the 12-member panel failed to reach agreement. Boehner said his next effort will be finding common ground with Democrats to address health care costs without tax increases.

1 comment:

James H said...

Well this is just the perfect example of how our government is running nowadays. A powerful committee with a special name, formed by the "best" politicians in D.C., fails at doing their job. The sad part is, there will be virtually no reprecautions. All hope was put into them, they say "sorry, we could not do it," and now we are just in more trouble.
Interesting, how if I had a project like this for, say, AP Gov; I had to fix the budget within certain time constraints. If I said, "Can't do it", I would recieve a horrible grade and not do so well in class.
Our representatives in government though? I guess they can get back to more important issues, like cooking apple pie for thanksgiving.