Super Committee Not So Super After All

A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

It took no superior mind to see, right from the conception of the so-called Super Committee, that it would be dysfunctional.  There was even some speculation that the committee was intended to fail. Now it certainly seems that those intuitions are about to bear fruit.

There are reports that the committee is already deadlocked trying to decide… wait for it … where to begin!

Late last week, there were reports that unnamed sources from the collective staffs of the committee were reporting anonymously, of course, that the six democrats wanted to begin with tax increases and the six republicans wanted to begin by discussing spending cuts. 

Now, here’s the thing:  Congress has to vote by November 23^rd on the super committee’s recommendation.  If they don’t, huge automatic spending cuts will kick in beginning in 2013. 

Look.  The super committee is a joke … a very bad joke.

It is no surprise that democrats on the committee want to raise taxes.  That’s what liberal democrats do.  Their philosophy is to raise taxes and then create more government agencies so as to grow government and increase government’s intrusion into the everyday lives of Americans.  They believe that government knows better how to run your life than you do.

On the other hand, conservative republicans believe that the smaller the government the better.  The less government intrusion in your life the more freedom you have.  Conservatives believe that starving the government into reducing its size is one avenue of approach to the problem of big government.  To do that, republicans will vote no on any tax hikes.

Republicans are insisting on spending cuts and the democrats are resisting.  Not only do the democrats not want to cut spending, they, in fact, want to increase spending.  They have adopted the warped idea that the US can be spent out of bankruptcy.  Why, even a town idiot knows better than that!

No, the Super Committee is not so super.  It is a pure reflection of the Congress from which it comes.

For instance:  Did you know that four of the committee’s members served on the Bowles-Simpson deficit reduction panel?  (Two Democrats and two republicans)  Did you know that all those members actually voted against the Bowles-Simpson plan?  Do you suppose they have changed their minds?  Neither do I.

Anyone expecting this committee to actually succeed should seek medical assistance.

The congressional landscape is littered with the carcasses of failed attempts by Congress to force itself to actually DO something about the deficit.  Here is a list of some of those attempts that I found at the International Business Times website: 

Graham-Rudman-Hollings Act - 1985

Emergency Deficit Control Reaffirmation Act - 1987

Budget Enforcement Act - 1990

Balanced Budget Act - 1997

Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP Balanced Budget Refinement Act - 1999

Deficit Reduction Act - 2005

National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (aka Simpson-Bowles) - 2010

Duds, all seven of them. By the end of this year the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction will join this list of lawmakers' attempts to virtually force themselves into doing the right thing. (You may read the entire article HERE.)


Much like a computer that bogs down and simply cannot do the tasks required of it, our Congress has bogged down. Some say that’s a good thing and, frankly, I lean toward agreeing with them.


In 2010 we conservatives sent a new breed of politician to Congress with instructions to stop the democrats and the Obama Regime from completely destroying our country. The idea was to bottle up Obama and his cohort until November of 2012 when we can do to the US Congress what we do to our bogged down computers … reboot!

It is clear that if our Congress is not re-booted -- in the elections of 2012 -- it will most certainly crash.

J. D. Longstreet