Getting recalled part replaced on car at dealership today. Fux Snooze was on and I heard something

[Horse with no Name]

that made my blood curdle.

Expected to come out of the "Super Committee"...extensive tax reforms that couldn't be passed by Congress alone.

So, this is how they are going to do it?:mad::scared:

[BeHereNow]

1. Doesn't sound good, does it?

The minute I heard the term "Super Committee" my blood ran cold.
Say good bye to even the sham of three branches of government
to assure checks and balances of power.

BHN

[pinboy3niner]

2. "...couldn't be passed by Congress alone"?

I'm not sure what that means. Anything reported by the "Super Committee" still must win passage by both houses.

[Horse with no Name]

3. They were talking mainly about the committee giving political cover

to the other members of Congress.

I guess basically by saying that they didn't have a choice. It was part of the bill and couldn't be changed. If they didn't pass it, old people would be cut off of SS.


Perhaps THAT is the reason the trigger was put in there?

[pinboy3niner]

4. I think you're right

That's why it was designed that way. But it remains to be seen whether or not that scheme will work as intended.

[Recursion]

14. No, this is yet another feel-good meaningless deficit commission

We've tried this several times over the past few decades. They always come up with a series of future discretionary spending cuts that future Congresses simply ignore.

[TheWraith]

7. No. There are NO cuts to Social Security in the "triggered" cuts. NONE.

Really, people need to get the details on this. There's a LOT of false information and false assumptions going around.

Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and ANY spending which is means tested, are exempt from the triggered cuts, with the sole exception of a reduction in payment rates for Medicare providers. In other words, slightly lower payments to hospitals and medical supply companies.

[Recursion]

11. The Trigger doesn't touch Social Security

It essentially cuts military contractor payments in half and accelerates a lot of the Medicare cost controls that are already scheduled to be rolled out as part of health care reform.

[AverageJoe90]

12. If you and TheWraith are correct..........

there may be some hope after all.
:dem:

[Recursion]

13. The whole thing is a bunch of meaningless theatrics

All of the cuts have to come out of discretionary spending in the future. People act like that means something but it doesn't: this Congress has 0 power to bind a future Congress's discretionary spending. All this commission can do is essentially come up with a recommendation for a future Congress. There will be hand-wringing, but in the end whatever they come up with, even if it passes Congress, will still have to be actually implemented by a different group of legislators in a different political environment.

This, incidentally, is why deficit hawks keep looking at entitlements. They're not sociopaths (well, some of them aren't); they just have seen time and time again that future Congresses simply will ignore discretionary spending caps set in the past. This isn't some hypothetical; this is the fourth time in my lifetime (and I'm only 35) we've tried something like this, and the cuts have never stuck. By contrast, if you cut mandatory spending like Medicare the cuts stay unless they're actually undone by another Congress. Social Security also stays cut, but cutting it doesn't give you on-book deficit reduction even if it does reduce the actual amount of borrowing needed (there are good and bad aspects to this division). I'm only vaguely a deficit hawk and even I am a little irked that this commission will probably do nothing that will actually reduce the long-term debt.

[dmr]

5. Seems to me the way they're going to use this committee would

be unconstitutional.

It's it similar to adding a 4th branch of government, where it takes away the responsibility of Congress?

Doesn't this mean taxation without representation?

[TheWraith]

6. How do you imagine that?

The deficit committee does nothing a conference committee doesn't do: put together a bill and submit it for a vote by the full Congress.

[Recursion]

10. It's explicitly Constitutional

The Constitution allows both chambers to establish their rules and committees; why is this any different?

[quaker bill]

8. The "super committee" recommendatiion

by law gets a straight up or down vote in both houses, no filibusters, no floor amendments. It is a take it or leave it proposition, and it only takes 7 of the 12 members to pass the recommendation and invoke this rule. Who crosses the party divide and in which direction is all that matters at this point.

[Recursion]

9. Yes, Congress as a whole will never increase revenues, but the committee might

That's why Congress has always used committees like this.

Luckily, Medicare was explicitly put out of the committee's reach, and Social Security won't yield any on-book deficit reduction and so isn't a tempting target.