I hear around the news that if the Congressional supercomittee on the debt doesn’t come to an agreement on what to cut, it automatically triggers massive cuts that both sides won’t like. I’m imagining that things like defense will be cut on the right, and social programs on the left, but I’m having a hard time picturing a confident Congress (on both sides) creating such devastating automatic cuts if a deal couldn’t be made.
What exactly will happen if the supercomittee doesn’t come up with a plan? The deadline is in a few days right?
In reality, I imagine we’ll see some fast action from our legislators to keep it (the cuts) from happening, and things will go forward as they always do.
If the committee fails (as nearly everyone expects them to), the first cuts will be scheduled to go into effect in January 2013. This gives Congress a whole year to repeal them. Yes, Congress can simply pass a law saying that the cuts will not take effect. Republican Senator John McCain has already announced that he will not tolerate the cuts to the military budget. “If there’s a failure on the part of the super committee, we will be amongst the first on the floor to nullify that provision,” McCain said. “Congress is not bound by this — it’s something we passed; we can reverse it.”
The supercommittee “trigger” has already been passed into law as part of the debt ceiling deal. If the supercommittee doesn’t come to an agreement within the next few days - which they probably won’t - then $600bn of spending cuts will hit the defense budget starting in 2013, and $600bn of spending cuts will hit the discretionary spending budget starting in 2013. There’s a good chance that only some - or none - of those cuts will actually take effect.
If the supercommittee doesn’t fix it, the very FIRST cuts to the budget need to be ALL congressional pay and spending. Not. One. Dime. No salaries for staff, no housing allowance, no travel pay, NOTHING.
Let them find a flophouse in DC and stand in line for food at the Salvation Army.
~VOW
Article I Section 6 says Congressmen must be paid for their service, and the 27th amendment prohibits their salary from being changed in the middle of a term, so that’s not going to happen. In any event, it’s bad government to punish ALL the members of Congress, including the ones who are actively working on a solution, and grind government to a halt in thew process, bhecause a few are being obstinate.
(In fact, it ooccurs to me that certain Congressmen would PREFER a Congress that’s broke and can’t afford to do business.)
Not to mention if the super committee fails its job, the government faces a downgrade in its rating. So while the auto-cuts won’t take effect until 2013, a downgrade would be immediate.
What would the penalty be for, and why would it be imposed on Barack Obama?