Part of the debt plan agreement was the formation of a supercommittee that is suppose to work together to find ways to cut $1.5T from the federal deficit. The committee is made up of 3 House Democrats, 3 House Republicans, 3 Senate Democrats and 3 Senate Republicans.
Each party’s House and Senate leaders have selected their 3 members to serve on the supercommittee. But to no one’s surprise, those picked by their party leaders have proven that they are unwilling to compromise or negotiate with the other side. Some were involved in previous stalled talks in the past. Noticingly missing from the panel are the Gang of Six that were involved in the compromised debt plan that was approved by both the House and Senate
Robert Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, a group that advocates for fiscal responsibility and getting the federal budget in order:
“These people must be sick of each other. They’ve been disagreeing with each other for a long time.”
For example, the six Democrats have all advocated tax increases as a means of increasing government revenue while the six Republicans have all been against raising taxes.
So the big question is – which side will eventually give in to the other? Who will become the weak link in their party’s side and give in to compromise? Only time will tell and in the mean time, Obama still has the $2.4T blank check that Congress gave him when they raised the debt ceiling.
