Super-Committee Failure Is A Good Thing

The images above are of the members of the congressional "super committee", composed of six Democrats and six Republicans. They were tasked with the job of coming up with a way to cut the budget deficit by another $1.2 trillion over the next ten years. But after weeks of arguing, they finally admitted yesterday that they had failed. They were unable to agree on a proposal to submit to Congress for a vote.

The Republicans wanted to cut the whole $1.2 trillion by doing nothing but cutting programs that help ordinary Americans. They absolutely refused to cut the defense budget (which makes  up more than half of all discretionary spending -- and about 44% of all military spending worldwide). They also refused to even consider raising taxes -- including tax raises that would only affect those making over a million dollars a year. The plan wanted by the Republicans would have been good for the military-industrial complex, other corporations, and the richest Americans, but it would have been disastrous for most other Americans.


The Democrats on the other hand, wanted to cut the budget deficit by using a combination of broad-based cuts and new taxes on the richest Americans. This plan would have been painful, but that pain would have been spread among all Americans -- even the richest Americans. That would have made things just a bit more palatable. But in the final analysis, neither side was willing to give in. Some of us progressives are breathing a sigh of relief, because we have seen the Democrats give in to ridiculous Republican demands far too many times in the past few years.

Thank goodness the six Democrats showed some backbone and refused to go along with the Republicans this time. With the Republican intransigence, that is probably the best outcome that could be hoped for. The budget deficit will still be reduced by $1.2 trillion over ten years (beginning in 2013), but the cuts will be evenly spread across the discretionary spending budget. This includes $600 billion in cuts to the outrageously bloated defense budget (about $60 billion a year).

Some Republicans (and blue dogs) are already complaining that this will hurt our national defense. That's not true. The cuts will simply be made in some of the special weapons programs (many of which either don't work or aren't really needed). There is absolutely no reason not to make these small cuts to the defense budget (and they really are small cuts).

So if Congress does absolutely nothing (and that is a real possibility), the budget deficit will be cut by $1.2 trillion over the next 10 years. And the Bush tax cuts for the rich will expire. That's two very good things to be accomplished considering the intractability of the current Congress. All we have to do now is how the Democrats make good use of their newly found backbones and don't let the Republicans block the defense cuts or the expiration of the Bush tax cuts for the rich.

And it sounds like the president is still willing to make use of the backbone he recently discovered he had. He has threatened to veto any plan that fails to cut the budget deficit by $1.2 trillion or tries to do it in an unfair or unbalanced way. The president said, "The only way these spending cuts will not take place is if Congress gets back to work and agrees on a balanced plan to reduce the deficit by at least $1.2 trillion. That's exactly what they need to do. That's the job they promised to do. And they've still got a year to figure it out."

It may seem a little strange to hail a committee failure as a real victory, but in this case that's exactly what it is.