The Super Committee is tasked with finding $1.2 trillion in savings to prevent draconian across the board cuts if they fail to do so. Republicans are also anxious to prevent the alternative, because the automatic cuts would slash military spending, a cow almost as sacred to them as their Pope Grover. There is actually a rather obvious fix that can accomplish their goal overnight, if the Democrats on the committee refuse to allow Republican social engineering there.
It’s a move that’s been dismissed as a budget gimmick, but it’s also one that could make the supercommittee’s job a whole lot easier: counting the savings of withdrawing troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.
As the 12 lawmakers on the panel begin searching high and low for at least $1.2 trillion in deficit cuts, they are eyeing once-sacrosanct areas like entitlements and weighing huge projects like tax reform…
…But if the troop withdrawal is factored in, over a trillion dollars in savings is there for the taking, and at least for the time being, supercommittee members are not ruling it out.
"Everything’s on the table," supercommittee member Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said, when asked if such savings should be considered as part of the panel’s mission.
In the president’s proposal to cut the deficit, a major chunk of the savings in the bill comes from the withdrawal of troops following the "surge." Those savings come about because the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) assumes war spending will stay at the temporary levels of last year for the next 10 years when scoring savings.
The White House says $1.1 trillion will be saved by drawing down those troops from Afghanistan and making the U.S. presence in Iraq a civilian, not a military, one.
Given that the supercommittee must track down at least $1.2 trillion in cuts to avoid the triggering of automatic cuts, simply accounting for those savings would nearly get the panel there all by itself… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Common Dreams>
Republicans will not agree to this easily. Remember that their goal has nothing to do with the deficit ort the debt. They are using these things as an excuse to push for privatizing Social Security, replacing Medicare with a coupon, replacing Medicaid with a voucher program, and destroying public employee unions. When they say there is no other way, this will prove they are lying.
The savings can be further accelerated ending the occupation of Afghanistan.
18 Responses to “How the Super Committee can solve their problem”
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They could also disband and force ALL of congress to do what they fucking get paid to do without all the drama of stupidity.
Wonderful Dream! 🙂
If everything is on the table, how about a cut in their pay and bennies packages?
Another wonderful dream! 🙂
REDUCING EXPENDITURES SUCH AS “WAR” SAVES MONEY – WHAT IS THE DEBATE HERE ? IT IS SO DAMM TRANSPARENT WHAT THE REPUGS ARE TRYING TO DO!!!
There is no debate. The contest is between truth and lies.
Forced by the radical Republican right (naturally), this committee will try to do far too much far too fast, and the fact of the matter is that the crimes of the Bush GOP era cannot and should not be righted all at once. To do so will be reckless and will certainly damage the economy much more than it already has been.
I fear that you are right, my friend.
It’ll never happen – the fascista – Cheney Halliburton group depend on every dollar the military concocts as important!!!! They would soonner expunge the poor and middle class, privitize all “entitlement” structures, regardless of the mess left in the wake of thier disgusting shenanigans – I have no hope for the super duper pooper committee!
Lee, that’s true, but these savings are already slated.
I think the Repubs are going to give us the finger on that one. And not the nice finger.
I think that’s likely. 🙁
When I first saw the small picture, I thought it was a police line-up, then I saw John Kerry, and then I saw the blue and red! Damn, I thought we were going to have a good old fashioned turkey shoot!
If there have to be $1.2 trillion in cuts, they have to look at the biggest spending area and that is defence. It is time to rein that in by bringing the troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq. The troops could be stateside helping to rebuild after all the storms. The US cannot afford to be the ‘policeman’ to the rest of the world while its own people are suffering from Republitis, a serious and life threatening disease. And like Patty said, cut the wages of the House and Senate by, what 10% and see how that plays out in dollars. After all, didn’t I hear the term ‘shared sacrifice’ or something like that, or is the Congress going to do the NIMBY two-step! If Boehner, Cantor, McConnell et al were a medical firm, there wouldn’t be malpractice insurance high enough to save their sorry butts from law suits brought against them by ‘We the People’ .
But I also agree with Jack that going too quickly will put the whole economy into spasms which would be bad for the country, but also the global community. May that is what Boehner, Cantor, McConnell et al want so that attention is diverted from their heinous malpractice.
And if that surgery is too dear to Boehner, Cantor, McConnell et al, then raise revenues by ‘taxing the rich’ — the Buffet proceedure. That would also be consistent with ‘shared sacrifice’.
Lynn, the point here is that all they have to do to get the savings I noted is to claim it.
THIS ‘SUPER COMMITTEE’ IS A GROUP OF POLITICIANS WHO WILL STILL BE HELD PRISONER BY THEIR OWN WELL FUNDED SPECIAL INTERESTS.
I SERIOUSLY DOUBT THY HAVE THE BACKBONE TO DEFY THOSE INTERESTS AND ACT IN THE BEST INTEREST OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.
SO MY FELLOW AMERICANS, I CAUTION YOU NOT TO TRUST THE LOW LIVES THAT MAKE UP THE U. S. CONGRESS TO DO THE RIGHT THING.
Welcome Charles. 🙂
Trusting Congress is indeed an exercise in futility.
May I suggest that typing in all caps online is considered to be shouting and very rude. I trust you did not know.
Surely, all their problems will be solved with mega rich corporate campaign contributions. Few will be working for the average middle-class/poor American. As usual in Washington D.C., big money does the talking and solving.
LK, that’s true of all the Republicans and some of the Democrats.