Super committee rests in pieces: A briefing page
| Washington
The super committee is dead. But long live the supercommittee in our round up of what you need to know about Washington鈥檚 latest gambit that, it turns out, wasn鈥檛.听
Documents and Talking Points:
- Bankrupting America has of what happens now that the $1.2 trillion trigger (of cuts over the next 10 years) has been pulled.
- The supercommittee鈥檚 on their failure.
- President Obama鈥檚 on the supercommitte鈥檚 failure and House Speaker John Boehner鈥檚 (R-Ohio) .
- The that both Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) asked the president to endorse today.
What do you need to know?
- Marc Ambinder looks at , writing that 鈥淸h]aving allowed Congress to fail on its own, Obama is not about to take the reins of a process that could further erode voter confidence in him.鈥�
- Why didn鈥檛 Obama get in the thick of things? One answer might be that the failure of the supercommittee, the New York Times writes, 鈥�, in which spending rises inexorably unless Congress musters the political will to impose cuts. Now, although both parties say they are committed to more gradual approaches, an agreement is required to avoid the fiscal equivalent of shock therapy.鈥�
- The Wall Street Journal鈥檚 Gerry Seib 鈥�Is there any political price to be paid for failure?鈥�
- Ezra Klein of the Washington Post argues because such a move would 鈥減lace the deficit debate back on more reasonable terms. He鈥檇 take back the initiative from House Republicans. And he鈥檇 give a better policy package a fighting chance at passage.鈥�
- Decoder would like to know: Wasn鈥檛 it Congress that couldn鈥檛 get this put together? Why all this talk about what Obama should or shouldn鈥檛 do? We get the point about the President steering the conversation, but, really? Aren鈥檛 the people on Capitol Hill adults (and elected ones, at that) too? .
The GOP presidential candidates react:
- Herman Cain cuts on 鈥�.鈥�听
- Rick Perry that 鈥渞esponsibility for this failure lays at President Obama鈥檚 feet.鈥�
- Ron Paul argues and so don鈥檛 really count as 鈥渃uts.鈥�
- Newt Gingrich crowed that .
- Michele Bachmann also , arguing 鈥渢he president and the Super Committee could not reach an agreement on how to put our country back on a path to prosperity鈥� even though the president was not a party to the supercommittee negotiations.听
- Jon Huntsman : 鈥淭oday I empathize with Americans who are overly frustrated with our government鈥檚 inability to accomplish anything.鈥�
- Mitt Romney? Got 鈥�. Rick Santorum, .
Partisan reaction:
- From the left: asks if the military was crippled in 2007, when the Pentagon鈥檚 budget was the same size as it could be under the automatic defense cuts.
- From the right: Power Line that the supercommitte鈥檚 failure may be just as well 鈥渂ecause the whole approach of trying to solve our country鈥檚 deep-seated fiscal problems with a closed-door, back-room deal is fundamentally wrong.鈥�
- From journalists: .
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