Thursday, August 11, 2011

The supercommittee

Nine of the twelve members of the "super committee" have now been named -- lacking only Nancy Pelosi's choice of three House Democrats.

Of course, the choices will inevitably displease almost everyone, in some way. And I must say that I'm not too happy -- but I don't know what picks would make me happy.

One report I saw criticized Reid's Senate Democrats, saying that they all get big financial contributions from the corporate world, so likely will tilt toward business interests.

Then a NYT article today said, of the nine, that three of them (Republican Portman and Democrats Kerry and Baucus) all have a history of working across party lines.

So, that means 1 of the 6 Repubs, and 2 of the 3 Dems appointed thus far are more likely to compromise. All six of the Repubs have signed Grover Norquist's pledge not to vote for tax increases.

This doesn't sound promising at all. It will take only one member to break with his/her party and vote for a compromise plan. Then it will go directly to Congress for an up/down vote, without amendments.

Ralph

1 comment:

  1. Pelosi has just named her choices:

    Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), who is the assistant party leader, Democratic Caucus Vice Chair Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.), and the top Democrat on the Budget Committee, Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.).

    This adds some ethnic balance: except for Murray (woman), the other 9 nominess are all white men.

    Here we have a black man (Clyburn), an Hispanic (Becerra), as well as a budget person (Van Hollen). Good choices.

    But, remember, it only takes one to cave in to the other side. Of course, that goes both ways, so we'll have to wait and see.

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