Budget Supercommittee fails

Linky

Is anyone really surprised by this? I mean the whole thing was unsurprisingly dragged down by partisan bickering from the get go, and, right at the end, they were just trying to blame the other party.

Ah well, he US has had a good run I guess.

(No thread on this when I posted this)

We've discussed it in the US defaulting on sovreign debt thingy-thread.

Although as far as the topic itself goes, I can see why they have comittees for things. Why have all the House Representatives or Senators voting on every nickle and dime issue? Divvy up the work.

This, though... Yeah, I'm not too surprised it didn't go anywhere. It's basically just a smaller version of the Senate overall, and look how much they agree on stuff.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13218776020A43764400&page=1

No, no one was surprised.

Excuse me. What is the point of a supercommttee if it can be deadlocked?

Of course, the idea was to exclude the majority from decision-making, but in that case, why didn't the Democrats (speaking devil's advocate here) just take tax hikes off the table? It makes no sense.

"Republican senators John Mc Cain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina are already working on legislation that would undo the automatic defence reduction, replacing it with cuts across the federal government."

Face Palm

Well really, I kinda hate compromise myself. It's like the worse of all policies combined. Oh well there's still the auto-cuts, whatever those are. Maybe I should check what they are.

This Is Gonna Suck.

Republicans are trying to remove the auto cuts to the military. You know, trying to avoid responsibility for their actions.

Well, those cuts go into effect in 2013. Congress has an absurd amount of time to circumvent it.

If they put more effort trying to avoid the responsibility of their actions than they do trying to govern the country, then we've truely become a failure as a nation, government wise.

Thats like someone putting more effort trying to avoid doing homework than actually doing the damn homework.

Now I'm starting to wonder if the Democrats intended the committee to fail.

edited 21st Nov '11 4:04:13 PM by johnnyfog

Obama pledged to veto any efforts by the republicans to undo the automatic cuts. Unless they somehow get the votes to avoid the veto, they're stuck with the cuts.

I didn't think there'd be sufficient support to do anything to change the auto-cuts.

Why would they do that? These cuts hurt everyone. Its more than just the military.

It cuts entitlement programs democrats love, and it cuts military republicans love.

IT WAS MEANT TO BE A PUNISHMENT FOR FAILURE AND THEY FAILED. THUS THE PUNISHMENT.

Obama reminds me of a parent who keeps telling his children "No matter how much you beg you aren't getting out of being grounded"

edited 21st Nov '11 4:16:38 PM by Thorn14

Opps, posted in the US American Election thread because... well it's relevant there

I think the problem was that while the democrats were WILLING to compromise, It had to be tit for tat. You can't compromise without the other side doing so too!

Democrats were willing to cut social programs IF Republicans were willing to consider Tax increase. Oh? You joined Norquist's retarded No TAX INCREASE FOREVER Pledge? I'm sorry, but you're now beholden to a person instead of your nation? go ahead Republicans but we ain't compromising no more

(That's pretty much the Super Committee Deadlocked thing, Democrats complained that Groover's name and his Anti-Tax Pledge came up too often)

edited 21st Nov '11 4:23:46 PM by Curiositykilledme

The thing is, will they be punished? Well, they might earn some bad press and probalby won't get re-elected, but that's about as "punished" as they're going to get. What about those on government aid that watch their aid get slashed? Or the Defense Industry employees that end up unemployed when their companies have to downsize? They suffer worse than Joe No-Pack Politician...

Well duh, thats why they became politicians. Perks.

I'm sorry, that sounds like naiveté and plain irrationality to me. You're taking professional politicians at their word. Why?

Did the Democrats hope that by separating a few key Republicans from Norquist's flock, they would commit treason and raise taxes? If they did, they're idiots.

I don't think the Democrats are that idiotic. Which means they knew the committee would fail.

edited 21st Nov '11 4:27:33 PM by johnnyfog

Isn't this a poor argument for Republicans to make? The first one's good for the rest, and it's what the Republican side can at least do for the sake of compromise. The second one's bad, but understandable if there's going to be a distribution of cuts.

OP's right. Should've spent more time accepting than rejecting. If both sides accepted each other's propositions, we would have bitter medicine. Now we have nothing.

edited 21st Nov '11 4:28:09 PM by abstractematics

At least bitter medicine fixes the problem, yeah.

So, was this supercomittee thing all just to keep us appeased?

"Hey look, we're doing stuff, so go back to watching football and reality TV."

The supercommitee just annoyed everyone. We all assumed that Obama wanted to exclude the masses and cut some deals while blaming the GOP.

Now it turns out they're just cicle-jerking for no reason. Pizza is a vegetable.

Technically that bill isn't exactly claiming that pizza is a vegetable. They're talking about tomato sauce. Problem is, tomato is a fruit.

And isn't Senate more deadlocked than House? A super committee therefore would be more of an appeasement to Republicans, who protest in the Senate but do not find as heavy opposition in the House. So I don't follow that.

No it was them trying to push the deadline due to no deal being reached during the debt limit debate.

Now they are trying to push it back again.

Our congress is that useless.

No it claims Pizza is a vegetable BECAUSE There is tomatoes in it. Therefore schools and companies can go "See we provide vegetables to kids!"

edited 21st Nov '11 4:36:05 PM by Thorn14

Thorn, I think you hit it.

That's what I said, Thorn... that the popular catchphrase "pizza is a vegetable" comes from the tomato. But that argument doesn't work because tomato is a fruit.

You want me to make a "tomato is a fruit" thread?

And why don't they just repeal the deadline... on everything? If the Congress insists on looking at bipartisan fairness instead of the issues individually, we might as well have that.