The Budget Chronicles: The Super Committee’s Predestined Failure

Wednesday, 11/16/2011 - 4:33 pm by Bo Cutter

All signs point to empty political posturing without real solutions. And that was always the expected outcome.
 
The super committee, set up after the debt limit debacle in early August, is due to report on November 23. This report is supposed to tell us how Congress will meet its self-inflicted requirement to reduce future deficits and the growth of the country’s debt by at least $1.1 trillion over the next 10 years. If this goal is not met, then automatic cuts — called sequestrations — will go into effect, divided equally between domestic and defense expenditures. This report was actually due to the Congressional Budget Office well before now so that the CBO could score the proposals. But if you knew anything about congressional negotiating, you knew that would never happen; it was always doomed to be strung out until the last minute.