it was not a very ambitious target. All that the congressional committee was required to do was to figure out a list of measures that would reduce America's budget deficits by $1.2 trillion over the next 10 years. That sounds like a lot of money, until you realise it is only 0.6% of gross domestic product of the United States, not even a quarter of the $5 trillion or so they really needed to write the books in Washington in less than 3% of the $44 trillion that the federal government is expected to spend over that period. To reach a goal that a business Costco would regard as simple, a bipartisan committee of 12 senators and congressmen was accorded exceptional powers. Its work is to be subject to a simple up-and-down vote, with no possibility of amendment and the Senate would not be able to use its power to filibuster. Yet on November 21 of three months of deliberation, but team was forced to admit that it had failed.
On paper this failure might not seem to matter much. Supposedly, spending cuts equivalent to the same $1.2 trillion will now automatically be triggered, starting in 2013, with 600 billion hacked out of the defence budget and the other 600 billion coming from the non-mandatory categories of spending, including education, housing and environmental protection. But in reality the failure is deeply alarming several reasons.
Firstly, the failure shows are Republicans and Democrats, even when offered the best possible conditions the dealmaking, can't do it. The Democrats refuse to consider structural reforms to the big entitlement programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Republicans refused to countenance anything that would seek tax rates rise, even though no sensible analyst believes that the deficit running at 8.5% this year can be close to a sustainable level by spending cuts alone and even though ruling out any tax rises, even to people making more than 250,000 year, is difficult to justify. Though a few interesting proposals were floated, suggesting Republicans not to lead me into getting rid of loopholes as long as any rate increase the reach more of the table. Secondly, they never came close to enjoy majority support. Until the political mood changes dramatically, it is impossible to see Congress tackling the deficit successfully which would mean they would have to be a process which will require reductions are a combination of revenue increases and spending cuts to the tune of four times will the super committee has just failed to deliver.
On paper this failure might not seem to matter much. Supposedly, spending cuts equivalent to the same $1.2 trillion will now automatically be triggered, starting in 2013, with 600 billion hacked out of the defence budget and the other 600 billion coming from the non-mandatory categories of spending, including education, housing and environmental protection. But in reality the failure is deeply alarming several reasons.
Firstly, the failure shows are Republicans and Democrats, even when offered the best possible conditions the dealmaking, can't do it. The Democrats refuse to consider structural reforms to the big entitlement programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Republicans refused to countenance anything that would seek tax rates rise, even though no sensible analyst believes that the deficit running at 8.5% this year can be close to a sustainable level by spending cuts alone and even though ruling out any tax rises, even to people making more than 250,000 year, is difficult to justify. Though a few interesting proposals were floated, suggesting Republicans not to lead me into getting rid of loopholes as long as any rate increase the reach more of the table. Secondly, they never came close to enjoy majority support. Until the political mood changes dramatically, it is impossible to see Congress tackling the deficit successfully which would mean they would have to be a process which will require reductions are a combination of revenue increases and spending cuts to the tune of four times will the super committee has just failed to deliver.
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