Monday, November 21, 2011

Super Committee not so Super

The name definitely must be changed. The so-called Super Committee appointed by Congress to come up with budget cuts and save the country from our crippling debt has failed. In fact they have crashed and burned in grand fashion.

No deal coming. No compromise. After weeks and weeks some of the most powerful people in Washington DC have absolutely nothing to show.

Now we will get $1.2 trillion in automatic cuts. $550 billion from defense. The rest from medicare and other programs. Republicans are already working on legislation to overturn them. Obama is already saying he will veto any such legislation.

And now the war of words begins. President Obama spouted at a news conference today blaming Republicans (as he always does). Seems to me the Super Committee was an even six from both parties. Blame should fall evenly on both sides.

A total political failure. I guess it should have been expected. All we have seen now for a few years are total political failures. Congress is a joke. The Presidential leadership is a joke. It's basically a total disaster.

Look around the world. Europe is in tatters. Egypt is once again blowing up. The Middle East is a powder keg that we will reignite over the next few weeks. We have the Occupy Wall Street movement (as goofy as it is). And we don't have twelve people from Congress that can sit down and come to any agreement.

Goodness things are bad.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

On the proposed defense budget cuts:

"I think we need to be honest about it," Paul said in an interview on CNN Sunday. "The interesting thing is there will be no cuts in military spending. This may surprise some people, but there will be no cuts in military spending because we're only cutting proposed increases. If we do nothing, military spending goes up 23% over 10 years. If we sequester the money, it will still go up 16 percent. So spending is still rising under any of these plans."

According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the planned Pentagon budget for 2021 would be some $700 billion, an increase over the current level of about $520 billion. The cuts already in the works plus the automatic reductions would trim the projected amount by about $110 billion.

"It's not a decrease in the military budget. It's reducing the increase," said John Isaacs, executive director of Council for a Livable World and Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.

stck101 said...

http://youtu.be/PJvXhc0XnOw
Super committee