Super Committee Failure Prompts Local Response

Yesterday’s announced failure of the “supercommittee” tasked with reaching a bipartisan agreement on deficit reduction is no surprise to long-time political observers.

Republicans find it unacceptable to raise taxes or cut defense spending and Democrats find it unacceptable to meaningfully reform social spending and insist on expanding entitlement programs. Further, as long as each party believes it benefits from blaming failure on the other, those in power simply do not have sufficient political incentives to reach a compromise.

The committees’ failure to present a debt reduction plan has local congressional leaders and advocacy organizations speaking out about the debt crisis and their own reform priorities.

In a statement earlier this month, Wolf urged the Supercommittee to aggressively cut spending, noting that every penny of federal revenue would go to pay for interest on the federal debt and entitlements by 2028, if reforms are not made. Yesterday, Wolf expressed his disappointment with the Supercommittee’s failure. He noted that he has – and will continue to – take steps to solve the nation’s debt crisis:

I have supported every serious effort to resolve this crisis: from the Bowles-Simpson recommendations; to the House-passed Ryan Budget; to the “Gang of Six” effort; to the “Cut, Cap and Balance” bill; to the Budget Control Act, which created the supercommittee.

As an appropriator, Congressman Frank Wolf (R-10) recently drew criticism from Americans for Freedom and Prosperity (AFP) for supporting the Budget Control Act. In an email dated November 16th, AFP accused Wolf of supporting tax increases as a deficit reduction option. While House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan commended the Act, a compromise spending agreement finalized in August, as a step toward saner spending levels, it clearly does not meet conservative spending reduction goals.

Wolf’s spokesman, Dan Scandling told Bearing Drift:

Like AFP, Congressman Wolf wants to close loopholes in the tax code and end the practice of tax earmarks, which costs hundreds of billions of dollars. He does not want to raise taxes.

Wolf is using General Electric’s $0 tax bill and 57,000 page tax return as an example of why corporate tax loopholes must be eliminated. In a floor speech last week, Wolf observed that GE, an American corporation, is a significant source of tax revenue for China, yet takes advantage of various loopholes and subsidies to avoid paying taxes here. Wolf is pushing to eliminate such loopholes while reducing corporate tax rates overall, a plan conservatives believe would make it easier for US businesses to compete worldwide and create jobs domestically. Big business lobbyists, however, find their client’s pecuniary interests threatened by such proposals to re-structure the tax code.

Jim Moran (D-8), the only other member of Appropriations Committee from Virginia, called the Supercommittee’s failure “predictable” and noted that he had voted against the measure creating it in the first place.

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About the author

E M Barner

E M Barner, the blogger formerly known as DCH / De Civitate Hominis (“concerning the city of man”), writes from a Northern Virginia perspective. Barner has been active in Republican politics and policy since 1994 – as a grassroots volunteer, party leader, and professional.