The Super Committee isn’t getting anywhere, and it turns out — surprise — that it doesn’t have to:
The supposed across-the-board cuts aren’t slated to go into effect until January 1, 2013. Put more simply: They might not ever go into effect.
The automatic cuts — known as sequestration — are often discussed in Washington as if they’re certain, an inevitability that Congress won’t be able to prevent. But on the same day those cuts would go into effect, the Bush tax rates, which President Obama extended for two years, are set to expire, leading to an “automatic” tax hike that is treated in Washington as anything but inevitable. (That the two coming policy changes are approached so differently — cuts are expected; expiring tax breaks for the wealthy are brushed aside — is a window into Washington’s priorities.)
Pushing the real deadline to 1/1/2013 put those cuts squarely in the sights of a lame duck Congress and President Obama, who will either be prepping for another four years or waiting on the movers. Either way, it’s a completely different dynamic than a 1/1/2012 deadline.
Ash Can
Wasn’t the Super Committee one of the main bones thrown to Republicans and blue dogs at the time of the budget deal?
cleek
so. wait. you mean the five weeks of shrieking were over nothing?
Bulworth
This can’t be true. Why, there was weeks and weeks of media coverage to the debt deal that gave us this supercommittee and our political pundit class assured us this debt deal and the supercommittee were Very Serious.
Phil Perspective
Cleek:
You are wrong. Why? Because if taxes on the rich don’t go up, people will still be PO’ed. Look at the date of that HuffPo article. It was before the Occupy movement took off.
RoonieRoo
Wait, I think I need someone to dumb this down for me.
So, if the supercommittee doesn’t come up with any agreement then the across the board cuts happen automatically. I got that part.
The expiration of the tax breaks is at the the same time. But the expiration of the tax breaks isn’t tied to the supercommittee, right? Couldn’t the nitwits extend them again?
I’m definitely missing something here.
Bulworth
@Ash Can: Yes, yes it was. So the Blue Doggies and teabags got nothing from the deal. Zippo. Nada. Except a lot of coverage and international scorn. Our pundit class couldn’t see that, but that’s what happened.
Culture of Truth
K-THUG:
I read David Brooks citing the Tax Foundation this morning, and I thought he must have misread them. They couldn’t possibly have compared one year’s take from higher taxes on the rich with the total stock of debt, could they? They can’t possibly be that stupid, or think that their readers are that stupid, can they?
Woodrow/asim Jarvis Hill
@RoonieRoo:
Correct. This is the downside of using the reconciliation process, and exactly why you’d want to avoid it for any legislation you want to have a long-term impact.
They can, in theory, do anything. But what will happen will depend strongly on the election. The bigger the GOP fall (and associated media narrative), the less willing will they be to obstruct.
Certified Mutant Enemy
Super-Sized Nothingburger
Super-sized because I’m really hungry, Nothingburger because I’m on a diet…
Certified Mutant Enemy
@Culture of Truth:
Yes.
wilfred
The irrelevance of the Committe explains why its members are receiving big donations:
“Members of the congressional committee charged with making one of the most sensitive economic decisions facing America, a $1.2tn cut in the federal budget, have received a series of donations from the defence, pharmaceutical, oil and other industries, figures have revealed. The Sunlight Foundation, a non-partisan organisation aimed at greater transparency in government, published donations to 10 members since they were appointed in August to the congressional super-committee with responsiblity for recommending cuts and possible tax increases over the next ten years. Their decisions, due to be announced by 23 November, could be worth millions of dollars to the specific industries.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/06/super-committee-donations-defence-oil
Rafer Janders
The automatic cuts—known as sequestration—are often discussed in Washington as if they’re certain, an inevitability that Congress won’t be able to prevent. But on the same day those cuts would go into effect, the Bush tax rates, which President Obama extended for two years, are set to expire, leading to an “automatic” tax hike that is treated in Washington as anything but inevitable.
Budget (read service and safety net) cuts considered as certain by Washington, while tax hikes are considered as anything but certain. Uh huh, we see how this works….
handy
@Culture of Truth:
ouch.
jayackroyd
@Ash Can:
The deal was political cover for the blue dogs and the GOP. They aren’t going to cut spending. They never cut spending. No republican congress, no republican senate, no republican president, post-war, has passed a budget smaller than the budget the year before.
It’s a lie. This exercise demonstrates that it’s a lie. All they ever do is promise to promise to cut spending sometime in the future. This has been true ever since Reagan and Stockman balanced the budget “in the out years.”
Same shit, different day.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Well speaking as a drone in the military-industral complex not facing a 50% cut in the defense budget and social security is a nothing burger I want.
Lockewasright
So we wind up with no significant cuts to demand in the economy and a referendum on tax policy. Jeez, it’s almost as if the president knew what he was doing or something!
geg6
@Bulworth:
This. And it was pretty obvious from the start, if you are willing to read fine print and hold more than one thought in your head at a time.
Which, obviously, means that the media had no idea.
geg6
@Lockewasright:
Yes, this.
MBunge
@Lockewasright: “Jeez, it’s almost as if the president knew what he was doing or something!”
I figured out a while ago that Barack Obama is the first President of my adult life who is genuinely a lot smarter than me. Considering how many folks in our information age build their entire self-worth on being the cleverest person in the room, it becomes easier to understand the reactions people have to him.
Mike
cleek
@wilfred:
far be it from politicians to solicit donations even when they know they won’t be able to deliver.
Joey Maloney
@Woodrow/asim Jarvis Hill:
I wish I could believe that, but I’ll take bets the reverse will be true. The worse they do in elections, the more they will dig in their heels. Defeat just makes fanatics more determined.
The only thing that will stop their obstruction is if they end up with such a small minority that they are not capable of using any of the choke points in the political process. And then I’d expect more violence.
Samara Morgan
you forgot the hostage, mixie.
the Bush tax cuts expire expire at the end of 2012.
Amir Khalid
@Samara Morgan:
You forgot to read the excerpt in the post, m_c.
Linda Featheringill
IIRC, we discussed the impotence of the Super Committee back when it was set up. The MSM didn’t seem to understand that. Does that mean that we’re smarter than they are?
Yep.
@MBunge:
I agree. The Prez is smarter than I am, too. :-)
El Cid
The Teabirchers really are the old paranoid anti-Communist anti-fluoride screamers.
No, really: the Pinellas County, FL tea party activist leader Tony Caso said that the fluoride was a Soviet-style plot to control our minds.
Thankfully, we have true red-blooded American heroes like the Tea Party to keep Americans from being stupid.
This is a thing that is real. This is a thing, which actually happened.
catclub
@Bulworth: No, they _might not_
get something, if a later congress decides to ignore/overturn the automatic cuts, which they always can do.
Of course, no one had the courage to actually vote for draconian cuts in the present tense, so this is not surprising. The only popular cuts are future ones.
I predict idiots on both sides will claim that the other side ‘rolled our lousy negotiators’.
ETA: Jayackroyd @ 14 beat me to it and said it better.
El Cid
The Teabirchers really are the old paranoid anti-Communist anti-fluoride screamers.
No, really: the Pinellas County, FL tea party activist leader Tony Caso said that the fluoride was a Soviet-style plot to control our minds.
[And the County actually voted to end water fluoridation. It’s not just Tea Party rhetoric. The county actually is going to stop fluoridating water because of Tea Party Bircher insanity.]
Thankfully, we have true red-blooded American heroes like the Tea Party to keep Americans from being stupid.
This is a thing that is real. This is a thing, which actually happened.
This is so fucking stupid that if you write the word “soc-ia-list” you get moderated.
lacp
I don’t think Republican leadership contains the sharpest knives in the drawer, but they probably knew what the score was, too, and realized that their mouth-breathing base wouldn’t catch on.
Amir Khalid
@Culture of Truth:
I expect Bobo will soon get in a snit and write another column saying “Some peoplz iz blowhards, hmph!”
Kristine
Doesn’t anyone else recall the statement that someone close to the Obama camp–reporter, advisor, possible even Obama himself–made around the time of the election that one way a “community organizer” would deal with thorns in their side would be to put them on a committee? I can’t find a link and I can’t recall the details of the article, which I know makes it damn near impossible to follow up. But it stuck with me so that every time Obama requests the formation of a committee, I figure he’s just trying to get some PITAs out of the way while he goes ahead and does what needs doing. The downside of this approach, as I see it, is that if it plays out in the public eye, the public gets the idea that Obama’s committees don’t work. The mechanics may work in the long run, but the optics are bad. I hope I’m wrong about the optics part.
MomSense
Another reason why the left wing freak the fu*$ out over the debt ceiling deal was nonsense.
slag
@Culture of Truth:
Ha! I wonder what their office holiday parties are like.
EconWatcher
I read something recently suggesting that federal support for unemployment benefits would need to be reauthorized by Congress at the end of this year. Is that true? If so, the Rs have a chance for a huge additional hostage scenario, very soon.
Elie
@lacp:
I suspect Boehner et al knew they had to slime this past them to get the deal done and “save the republic”…
Nothing is ever over for sure, but that was the best escape they could figure given the corner they had painted themselves into.
Not to say that a hostage situation can’t happen again, but you will note that the two or three theatenned government shutdowns since then were quietly resolved. Doesnt mean it will continue that way, but still worthy of note
Paul in KY
@El Cid: Just when you think they are beyond parodying, they go and turn Dr. Strangelove into a research document. Wow!
Elie
@MBunge:
But,but,but HE SOLD US OUT!!! sniff sniff sniff
WE DON LOVE HIM! HE DIDNT BRING US PONIES!
Elie
@MomSense:
Appears that they are no brighter than the teatards…
El Cid
@Paul in KY: Or as a planning manual.
priscianusjr
@Lockewasright:
priscianusjr
@Elie:
Paul in KY
@El Cid: Yeah, that too.
I had an Uncle (since deceased) who looked & sounded alot like Slim Pickens, especially Slim as he sounded in ‘Blazing Saddles’.
Jay in Oregon
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
I have it on good authority that Rick Perry has a job for you on the Texas border.
Jenny
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaait a minute!
Are you saying, “The People’s View” was right all along!
http://www.thepeoplesview.net/2011/08/paul-krugman-is-political-rookie-or-how.html
I’m shocked! I’m shocked!
Jenny
@priscianusjr:
/fixed