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Supercommittee Wants to Get Things Done
Skepticism that they will reach a mutually acceptable agreement is running high. But in their early public comments since receiving the assignment, several of the lawmakers appointed to the panel have sounded unexpectedly eager to find common ground -- and to avoid taking the kind of rigid stands that would be difficult to rescind once negotiations begin."Look, I think this supercommittee is about as dumb an idea as Washington has come up with in my lifetime," Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said at the Iowa Republican debate last week. Unelectable, but not a moron. "The idea that 523 senators and congressmen are going to sit around for four months while 12 brilliant people, mostly picked for political reasons, are going to sit in some room and brilliantly come up with a trillion dollars or force us to choose between gutting our military and accepting a tax increase is irrational," he said. It is good news for the 511 remaining, who get to sit on their keesters and laugh. The group's 12 members are veterans who were chosen in part because of their close bonds with House and Senate leaders. They include the chairmen of the tax-writing committees in both the House and Senate, a former Democratic presidential nominee and a former budget director for President George W. Bush. For the most part, they are considered neither firebrands given to heated rhetoric nor mavericks likely to make a deal without the approval of their respective party caucuses. In Seattle, Sen. Patty Murray (Dim-Wash.), the group's Democratic chairwoman, pleaded that the panel be given time and space to do its work. "We need time and space to raise taxes!" Gene Clem, president of the Southwest Michigan Tea Party Patriots, said he would tell Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), a supercommittee member, "to come up with real solutions and put the politics aside." Last year, Upton faced a tough primary challenge from a local Michigan tea partyer who argued that Upton was too moderate on spending issues. Now, Clem said he wants Upton and other panel members to eliminate tax loopholes and corporate subsidies -- even if that results in higher revenue for the government -- provided tax rates are lowered overall and entitlements are also cut. We've been headed down this road since LBJ turned left in 1966; maybe it's time to get off the road and on to another route. "Maybe that's where the tea party needs to be," Clem said. "To bring the two sides together where there needs to be agreement. Like the parent, to bang their heads together." Somebody's got to act like a grown-up! Posted by: Bobby 2011-08-14 |
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