The failure of the deficit reduction supercommittee — so fundamental that the panel could not even agree on what should be in play let alone why it failed — was foretold. It was a bi-partisan failure in every sense, although much of the blame goes to Republicans, five of six whom would not consider tax hikes for the wealthiest Americans and instead demanded tax cuts for them.
In the end, the Democratic proposal to cut $2.2 trillion overall, including as much as $500 billion of savings in health care programs, higher Medicare premiums for high-income beneficiaries and use of a less generous measure of inflation that would reduce annual Social Security cost-of-living adjustments failed to move the Republicans, while their $2.2 trillion counter-proposal included only $640 billion of nontax revenues, which Democrats said was too modest, and permanent tax cuts at all income levels.
“If you’re going to ask every average American who drives a car, goes to work, struggles each day to pay their bills — if they’re going to somehow be part of the solution, to have something on the table that does not ask the wealthiest people in the country to share in it would be unconscionable,” supercommittee member John Kerry said.
Most of the Republican members would have none of that and their final plan included dropping the tax rate for those poor, suffering super rich from 35 percent to 28 percent.
The committee was required to submit a plan by today and its failure will lock into place deep, across the board cuts to defense and security programs, a two percent cut to Medicare providers, and cuts to other domestic programs. Those cuts will kick in on January 1 unless Congress acts to eliminate the automatic penalty passes more targeted budget cuts to keep the penalties from going into effect.