1. "...committee members apparently couldnt even agree on their mandated $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction and it seems increasingly likely that they will now throw in the towel with no agreement at all.
2. There are hundreds of billions in cuts that Democrats and Republicans could pocket without cutting entitlements or raising taxes. Failure to do so will make this one of the saddest displays of incompetence ever witnessed in Washington.
3. On Friday, Republicans offered a go small plan that would reduce the deficit by $640 billion including a pay freeze and bigger pension contributions for federal workers, cuts in farm subsidies and other spending reductions. According to one GOP aide, this is the lowest of the low-hanging fruit, stuff that everyone agrees on.
a. Republicans even gave in to one of the Democrats long-held demands, eliminating the special tax break for corporate jets, which would raise $3 billion in new taxes over 10 years.
4. The Democrats rejected the GOP offer.
a. Patty Murray, Democratic co-chairman of the supercommittee, declared it does not meet, even close to coming to meet, the issues that we set out from the beginning: fair and balanced. Translation: Democrats wont sign on to any spending cuts, no matter how modest, if Republicans do not agree to massive tax increases.
b. [Rember this brainstorm from Patty Murray: she told high school students that bin Laden has been "out in these countries for decades, building schools, building roads, building infrastructure, building day care facilities, building health care facilities, and the people are extremely grateful. ]Democrat senator<br>praises bin Laden
5. This makes no sense at all. The $1.2 billion sequester, which will go into effect if the supercommittee fails, is made up entirely of spending cuts, with no tax increases. Refusing to substitute some mutually agreed upon targeted cuts for the automatic, across-the-board cuts is ridiculous.
6. Democrats seem intent on letting the supercommittee crash and burn rather than making a less-than-optimal emergency landing.
7. If the supercommittee fails, Republicans will rightly point out that they put two serious proposals on the table only to have Democrats reject both offers without ever putting forward a unified counterproposal.
8. [Dems] dismissed a proposal by Sen. Pat Toomey that included some $300 billion in tax increases. In making this offer, Toomey and his fellow Republicans crossed a line in the sand their party had drawn risking a major backlash from the GOP rank-and-file and the conservative grassroots. But instead of accepting this concession in good faith and putting forward a serious counteroffer, Democrats immediately attacked it and demanded $1 trillion in tax increases
9. ...failure. ...may be precisely what the Democrats want. With President Obamas approval ratings in the tank, and their party poised to lose control of the Senate in 2012, Democrats know their only hope to stave off electoral disaster is to run a negative campaign that paints Republicans as intransigent extremists.
10. It is the Democrats who have rejected every offer and every compromise Republicans put forward."
Our super-pathetic debt supercommittee - The Washington Post
Based on this, the only folks who will vote Democrat are, as usual, the uninformed.
2. There are hundreds of billions in cuts that Democrats and Republicans could pocket without cutting entitlements or raising taxes. Failure to do so will make this one of the saddest displays of incompetence ever witnessed in Washington.
3. On Friday, Republicans offered a go small plan that would reduce the deficit by $640 billion including a pay freeze and bigger pension contributions for federal workers, cuts in farm subsidies and other spending reductions. According to one GOP aide, this is the lowest of the low-hanging fruit, stuff that everyone agrees on.
a. Republicans even gave in to one of the Democrats long-held demands, eliminating the special tax break for corporate jets, which would raise $3 billion in new taxes over 10 years.
4. The Democrats rejected the GOP offer.
a. Patty Murray, Democratic co-chairman of the supercommittee, declared it does not meet, even close to coming to meet, the issues that we set out from the beginning: fair and balanced. Translation: Democrats wont sign on to any spending cuts, no matter how modest, if Republicans do not agree to massive tax increases.
b. [Rember this brainstorm from Patty Murray: she told high school students that bin Laden has been "out in these countries for decades, building schools, building roads, building infrastructure, building day care facilities, building health care facilities, and the people are extremely grateful. ]Democrat senator<br>praises bin Laden
5. This makes no sense at all. The $1.2 billion sequester, which will go into effect if the supercommittee fails, is made up entirely of spending cuts, with no tax increases. Refusing to substitute some mutually agreed upon targeted cuts for the automatic, across-the-board cuts is ridiculous.
6. Democrats seem intent on letting the supercommittee crash and burn rather than making a less-than-optimal emergency landing.
7. If the supercommittee fails, Republicans will rightly point out that they put two serious proposals on the table only to have Democrats reject both offers without ever putting forward a unified counterproposal.
8. [Dems] dismissed a proposal by Sen. Pat Toomey that included some $300 billion in tax increases. In making this offer, Toomey and his fellow Republicans crossed a line in the sand their party had drawn risking a major backlash from the GOP rank-and-file and the conservative grassroots. But instead of accepting this concession in good faith and putting forward a serious counteroffer, Democrats immediately attacked it and demanded $1 trillion in tax increases
9. ...failure. ...may be precisely what the Democrats want. With President Obamas approval ratings in the tank, and their party poised to lose control of the Senate in 2012, Democrats know their only hope to stave off electoral disaster is to run a negative campaign that paints Republicans as intransigent extremists.
10. It is the Democrats who have rejected every offer and every compromise Republicans put forward."
Our super-pathetic debt supercommittee - The Washington Post
Based on this, the only folks who will vote Democrat are, as usual, the uninformed.