The Fortnightly Rant for Friday, December 2, 2011, from The New Hampshire Gazette, Volume 256, No. 5, posted online Wednesday, December 21, 2011.
The Super Committee,* Congress’s latest gimmick for dodging its responsibilities, announced last week that it had failed to reach an agreement to slash the federal budget deficit by $1.2 trillion over the next decade.
Most Republicans promptly blamed the Democrats, citing their refusal to slash spending on social programs — which did not cause the deficit. They also blamed President Obama for not being a part of the negotiations. If he had taken a more active role, they would have complained that he was meddling.
Republicans were not quite unanimous in blaming the Democrats. Former Senator Alan Simpson (R-WY) said that anyone who would put Grover Norquist’s anti-tax pledge ahead of the needs of the country had no business being in Congress. Norquist explained to TV interviewers that Simpson’s anti-pledge position was attributable to his being either senile or drunk.
All six of the Republicans appointed by their Party leaders to the Super Committee have signed Norquist’s pledge to “oppose any and all efforts” to raise tax rates or lower or eliminate loopholes. It’s not as if the leadership can be faulted for cherry-picking, though — in the Senate, pledge signers outnumber non-signers by nearly 6 to one. In the House, the ratio of signers to non-signers is nearly 40 to one.
Negotiation by Fiat
Republicans began the Super Committee negotiations by saying they would permit the Democrats to raise an additional $300 billion in new revenue — but only if the He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named† tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 were made permanent.
It must be borne in mind that when dealing with Republicans, the meanings of words are determined not by the dictionary but by the National Committee. Negotiating means staking out a certain aggressive position already known to be unacceptable to the other side, declaring it to be non-negotiable, then shifting that position further towards their ultimate goal: a return to monarchy and feudalism.
The ultimate failure of the Super Committee represents, to a certain extent, a victory for the Democrats. For a change, they didn’t give anything away; a laudable improvement in their performance overall. And, theoretically, the He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named tax cuts will end on schedule December 30, 2012.
So, petty politics aside, if the aforementioned tax cuts do end in 2012, the largest single cause of our current deficit woes will have died a natural death, at the end of its alloted lifespan.
As for the rest of our deficit woes, if only we had gotten the job done promptly in Afghanistan, and stayed the hell out of Iraq, they would never have arisen.
It is Sweet to Forget
If the Republicans can’t live without these damned tax cuts, why on Earth did they ever put an expiration date on them in the first place? It goes entirely against their — well, what passes for their principles.
A Senate rule nearly forty years old allows any Senator to block legislation during the Reconciliation process if it significantly increases the federal deficit — for a period of more than ten years.
Republicans knew the He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named tax cuts would wreak havoc on the deficit, so they gave them a ten-year drop dead date to sneak them past the Byrd Rule — named after Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, a Democrat.
Italians sometimes say dolce far niente — it is sweet to do nothing. Republicans, though they will neither say it nor admit it, believe è dolce dimenticare — it is sweet to forget.
Oh, That Catastrophe
While we wallow in not-so-sweet reverie, let us also recall the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999, aka Gramm-Leach-Bliley. Call it GLB.
GLB repealed the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, thereby ushering in the financial free-for-all of 2000 – 2007, creating the financial freefall that began in 2008 and continues to this day.
One would not think that having voted for GLB would constitute a qualification — unless one happened to be a Party leader in Congress. Of the six Super Committee seats allocated to the Republicans, leaders filled five with Members who had voted for GLB. Lest Democratic heads begin to swell, two of the six assigned by their Party leaders did the same.
Wheels Within Wheels
As the Super Committee shuffles offstage, let us recall its larger context.
Just about the time President Obama was elected, Republicans determined that raising America’s debt ceiling would be tantamount to national suicide. An amazing coincidence.
Then last spring the debt ceiling actually approached. Even Republicans could see the awful consequences that would ensue if they walked their talk. They needed a face-saving way to do that which they had promised not to do. Being Republicans, that wasn’t hard: create a Super Committee! It will miraculously undo all the damage.
But wait — $600 billlion in defense cuts? The poor defense contractors will starve!
No problem. The cuts don’t kick in until January, 2013. Congress has a whole year to move the goal posts. Again.
* Officially but prosaically named the United States Congress Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, or JSCDR. The Members who drew up the enabling legislation clearly did not have their hearts in it, since they failed to give it a trick name spelling out something clever. They had but to ask; we would have suggested Committee to Research Alternative Procedural Options for Legislating Appropriately, or CRAPOLA.
† Since Republicans become terribly upset — and understandably so — at every mention of our 43rd President’s name, we offer this circumlocution in lieu of the name of a man whose face they once claimed ought to be on Mount Rushmore.