The Super Committee Fails Stupendously

The Super Committee - or shall I say, the Stupor Committee - has failed.  The bipartisan, 12-member committee was created by Congress in August when it passed a debt bill designed to reduce the deficit by $1.2 trillion dollars over ten years. If the committee failed to present a deficit reduction plan to be passed by Congress this Wednesday, its failure would trigger a pre-determined program of budget cuts that would somewhat indiscriminately reduce the deficit by the required $1.2 trillion.

My work buddy, whom I refer to as the Devil's Advocate, because he basically argues the opposite of everything I say, insists that Congress is paralyzed because it has too many members. He says any group larger than five to seven members cannot operate efficiently to make decisions and carry out tasks.  My view (the one he counters) is that it is ideology, and not numbers, that creates the deadlock.

The Stupor Committee's failure proves my point. Only 12 representatives and senators from both parties served on the Stupor Committee, and every one of them knew how vital was their assignment, and yet they failed to deliver an agreed-upon solution. Why? because all of them are more concerned with making their party look good, and bending over for their PACs (political action committees), than they are about serving their country.

In particular, Democrats insisted on raising taxes, while Republicans absolutely refused to raise taxes. To be more accurate, Republicans wanted to extend the Bush Tax cuts, which automatically expire at the end of the year, while the Democrats wanted to extend the cuts only for those making less than $1 million a year.  Why do the Republicans refuse to raise taxes on $1-million-a-year earners? Because most of them signed a pledge foisted on them by the PAC, Americans for Tax Reform, headed up by activist Grover Norquist.  Why? So they would not be voted out of office. Because they are more concerned with their own political future than with the financial health of our nation.

Not that the Democrats are any more altruistic or patriotic.

So, who's looking out for us? Not the Stupor Committee, and not the rest of Congress.  So here's what I suggest: since these folks seem to be motivated only by re-election concerns and political contributions, let's punish them by drying up their coffers and voting them out of office.  Here are the twelve members of the Stupor Committee:

Democrats 
Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA) 
Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) 
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)
Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT)  
Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) 
Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), co-chair

Republicans
Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI)
Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX)
Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI)
Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ)
Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), co-chair 
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA)

None of these folks is from Georgia, so we can't vote them out ourselves. But you know people who live in some of the areas represented by these folks. Call your friends, relatives, acquaintances and encourage them to vote these bums out of office. While we're at it, let's get rid of Nancy Pelosi and John Boehner, whose cowardly and self-serving "leadership" - and I do use that term loosely - created the need for a Stupor Committee in the first place.

Then, let your own representative and senators know that they are next, if they don't put their country before their own pockets and prestige.