The Super-congress Flaw

The recent debt ceiling bill created a new committee composed of 12 politicians (3 Dems and Reps from the House and the Senate) that will propose a defecit reduction plan that will be sent to an up or down vote. Now, this committee is balanced in partisanship and gives equal power to all sides. The parties will pick their best and brightest to get together and decide on a rational solution to the long term debt solution. The discussion of this group will be transparent and there will be no way for lobbyists to interfere with policy making. This committee will also create peace in the middle east and cure cancer by sheer force of discusion.

This entire plan is a disaster for several reasons:

1. It assumes that both parties care equally about the success of negotiations. The Republicans will never move an inch even to push the country out of the way of a speeding train unless all of their demands are met. The recent hostage taking tactics of the Republicans are antithetical to debate in a committee because the Democrats will blink first.
2. Lobbying groups are already salivating at the thought of influencing this small and powerful group of politicians. Bribing 7 committee members is a whole lot easier than hundreds of politicians.
3. I seriously doubt there will be transparency in the debates
4. The entire primes of cutting spending is flawed when we are in recession. Most economists agree that what we need is more spending, not huge cuts.

The political ploy created by this debt ceiling crisis's solution can only have one conclusion: The result will be a  regressive bill that harms the poor, doesn't increase taxes, and cut entitlement programs.

The Sarcastic Liberal