The Nation: Time to disband Supercommittee.

[Fuddnik]

Congress has achieved the remarkable feat of making itself less popular than Wall Street bankers. The way they’re heading, the legislators are going to lose the remaining 9 percent of the public who approve of the job they’re doing.

The economy is in serious trouble. There are 25 million people in need of full-time work, wages are declining and one in four mortgages is underwater. People want Congress to focus on jobs and the economy. So how is it that after a few weeks of inching toward talk about unemployment, Congress has turned its attention back to austerity measures guaranteed to destroy jobs, not create them?

We’re approaching the deadline of the supercommittee, the despicable offspring of last summer’s debt-ceiling deal, in which a “gang of twelve” legislators was given extraordinary powers to meet in secret and decide the economic fate of the nation—a terrible precedent for our democracy. It must forge a plan to reduce the deficit by $1.2 trillion by Thanksgiving, and if nothing is passed by Christmas, deep cuts in discretionary spending begin automatically in 2013.

In a foolish concession to GOP extremism, the majority of Democrats on the supercommittee suggested $3 trillion in deficit reduction, with the ratio of spending cuts to tax hikes at a regressive six to one. A large chunk of those cuts would come from Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. These Democrats have thus given up on the core legacy of their party—and a core obligation of the nation. Even so, House Speaker John Boehner scorned their pre-emptive concessions while supercommittee Republicans suggested even harsher measures that would fall most heavily on the neediest.

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http://www.thenation.com/article/164505/time-disband-supercommittee

[FiveGoodMen]

1. Amen

[closeupready]

2. If they cut soc.sec. or medicare in any way, their approval ratings will only go down even further.

Blaming the other side for refusing to compromise and thus, letting the draconian cuts take effect is not going to fool ANYONE.

[NorthCarolina]

3. The super committee will serve it's intended purpose.

Of that I have little doubt.

[Fuddnik]

4. Unfortunately, I agree.

These committees are the cowardly way of doing things the people don't want, without putting any effort into finding real solutions.