Another Turkey Expected for Thanksgiving

Republican leadership has vowed to block any genuine compromise suggested by the Democratic administration on major issues, pledging to bring down this president at all costs, and the Obama administration, elected based on an appearance of leadership and oratorical skills, has truly failed to explain the issues clearly to the American people and has most certainly failed to inspire or lead. As the days tick away towards the Thanksgiving deadline from the so-called budget-reducing Congressional “Supercommittee,” they are apparently deadlocked, weaseling and squirming to avoid making big decisions as their empowering statute has mandated. The only product of this ineffectual body is likely to be a more uniform downgrade of U.S. debt instruments by the world’s leading credit agencies, which will trigger a host of undesirables, such as higher interest demands on our bonds to a further tightening of credit across the board.

If it weren’t for Europe’s failure to grasp the consequences of letting failing countries slide into riot-inducing austerity programs and outright despair, we’d be the center of attention from the global financial community. The statute that gave birth to this “we can’t decide so you do it” Congressional buck-passing Supercommittee forces an automatic, preset $1.2 billion reduction if they fail to state otherwise by November 23^rd. A pile of Congresspeople are already having second thoughts about reducing our super-bloated military budget in this pre-set, and are creating legislation to reduce that impact.

Others are simply trying to get the controversial revenue-generating alterations – such as increasing taxes on people who earn more than $1 million a year – out of the purview of this committee and into “something after the 2012 elections” instead: “Under this approach, the panel would decide on the amount of new revenue to be raised but would leave it to the tax-writing committees of Congress to fill in details next year, well beyond the Nov. 23 deadline for the panel itself to reach an agreement. That would put off painful political decisions but ensure that the debate over deficit reduction stretched into the election year… ‘There could be a two-step process that would hopefully give us pro-growth tax reform,’ Representative Jeb Hensarling of Texas, the top Republican on the panel, said [October 13^th] on the CNN program ‘State of the Union.’” New York Times, November 13^th.

But bitter partisanship seems to signal a complete inability of our Congress to deal with vital issues until after the election… and if the election does not provide a filibuster-proof majority from one party or the other – with a president from the same party to sign the legislation – even after the election and into the foreseeable future. “[M]embers of the congressional ‘supercommittee’ appear increasingly pessimistic about the odds of forging a debt-reduction deal, despite a new offer by Republicans to raise taxes [or at least reform loopholes in exchange for other rate reductions]… The public debate has grown more divisive since both sides laid out their latest offers last week. Negotiators, already under attack from the left, are facing fresh pressure from the anti-tax right. And charges of betrayal are expected to intensify [as the] House returns from a week-long break, fueling concerns that a deal could emerge from the supercommittee only to die in the House or the Senate.” Washington Post, November 13^th.

Is the debate entirely without hope? Well, you be the judge. Here is the state of “progress” though this rather rancid attempt at accommodation: “Mathematically, the gap between the two sides on the supercommittee has narrowed. Republicans have offered a $1.2 trillion deficit-reduction package that would cut spending by about $750 billion over the next decade while raising about $500 billion in revenue, including about $300 billion in new taxes. Democrats have offered to trim borrowing by $2 trillion, with that sum equally divided between spending cuts and tax increases.

“[Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas, the supercommittee’s GOP co-chairman] acknowledged that the committee is considering punting some of the hardest details of tax reform into next year, a move that would keep the deficit debate alive through the 2012 election season. In recent days, negotiations have focused almost exclusively on the tax issue, with Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.), both supercommittee members, struggling to reach consensus on how much new revenue could be generated through an overhaul of the tax code and how to force their committees to achieve that goal.” The Post.

What’s the administration’s position on all this? “President Obama called the Democratic and Republican leaders of the supercommittee from Air Force One on his way out of town … for an extended trip to Hawaii and Asia, and he has continued to urge action in his remarks on the road…. Obama has stopped short of issuing a blanket veto threat if the committee tries to undo the severe cuts that would take effect in 2013 if an agreement is not reached. Obama has simply said that Congress ‘must not shirk its responsibilities’ and, in a news conference from Hawaii, said he would not comment on the potential for a veto…

“‘It’s going to take a few more years to meet the challenges that have been a decade in the making. And I think the American people understand that,’ Obama told donors at the Aulani Disney Resort. ‘What they don’t understand is leaders who refuse to take action. They don’t understand a Congress that can’t seem to move with a sense of urgency about the problems that America is facing.’” Washington Post, November 15^th. It sure is hard for Americans, who believe with much justification that ours is a great and functioning democracy that has endured through the centuries, that the system still has serious flaws and on occasion just plain doesn’t work.

I’m Peter Dekom, and it is amazing that our Congress is so out of touch with the frustrations and anger of their constituency – evidenced by abominable approval ratings – that they really cannot change enough to do their jobs and bring this nation some relief at a time we need it most.