Supercommittee Member Blames Failure On 2012 Politics

By Mike Hothi

Supercommittee member Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) Tuesday blamed the bipartisan panel’s recent failure on “forces pulling the Democrats away from an agreement.”

“We have a Presidential campaign that is now premised on the idea that the President is running against a do-nothing Congress,” Toomey said during an appearance at the Heritage Foundation.

Toomey said that he believes success in the Super Committee would have made the President’s message meaningless.

“If the select committee had come to a great bipartisan agreement that could pass both houses and get signed into law, it would rather muddle the message that the President is trying to run on,” Toomey said.

The Super Committee was tasked with finding $1.2 trillion in savings to avoid automatic sequestration, a task the 12 person panel failed to accomplish.

Toomey also blamed the far left wing of the Democratic party for meddling in the committee’s negotiations. He stated that while there were some Democrats that tried to reach an agreement, many in the committee “found it impossible to break from the left wing of their own caucus.”

Going forward, Toomey said he believes that in order for true reform to be undertaken, the U.S. must “await another election cycle for further clarity and guidance from the voters.”

Conservatives Applaud Debt Panel Republicans For Opposing Tax Hikes

By Mike Hothi

Conservative activists applauded Republicans on the congressional ‘super committee’ today for opposing Democratic attempts to raise taxes.

The group held a press conference Tuesday morning to praise the six GOP lawmkers on the debt panel for not caving in to “disastrous tax increases.”

“Raising taxes is absolutely unacceptable,” stated Brent Bozell, Chairman of ForAmerica. “The media and the White House want you to believe the Super Committee failed, but in a very real way that is untrue.”

Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council went as far as to say that the Committee succeeded.

“It succeeded in showing Americans the vast ideological divide that stands between the two main political parties in this town” he said. “There is the party that believes we can sustain spending levels that have doubled in the last decade.”

Talks between members on the committee broke down over the weekend after both sides rejected a twin of proposals. Republicans, led by Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) proposed generating $300 billion in new revenues mainly through eliminating tax loopholes and deductions. In return, the GOP asked Democrats to go further on cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. Democrats countered by saying they would agree to the steeper entitlement cuts if Republicans would support $1 trillion in new revenues over the next decade.

When Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the two leaders on the panel, realized yesterday that they had reached an insurmountable impasse, they released a joint statement officially announcing the committee’s failure.

Following the joint statement, Senate Foregin Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) blamed anti-tax lobbyist Grover Norquist for standing in the way of an agreement. Kerry, a key Democratic member of the committee, called Norquist’s famous anti-tax pledge signed by most of the current Republicans in Congress the “one hang-up” that prevented a deal from being reached.

Norquist responded by accusing Kerry and other Democrats of signing “secret” pledges to unions and progressive special interest groups.

Conservatives who spoke at today’s presser told reporters that they would’ve revolted had Republicans agreed to large tax hikes. They said that they will continue to lean on GOP lawmakers to hold the line.

“If Republicans ultimately cave to liberal Democrats and support tax increases, the results in 2012 will be devastating,” said Bozell.

Geoff Holtzman contributed to this report.

Pelosi Defends Democrats' Rejection Of CR Bill

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) defended Democrats’ decision to reject the lower chamber’s CR bill during her weekly press briefing Thursday.

“We should not go down a different path now than we have done on natural disaster assistance,” Pelosi remarked. “That’s why we fought so hard about what the Republicans put forth. On top of that, we didn’t like the offset because it was a jobs killer.”

The House Republicans’ continuing resolution (CR) included $3.65 billion in funding  for disaster relief and was partially offset by a $1.5 billion cut to a Department of Energy advanced manufacturing loan program.

The bill was rejected by a House vote of 195-230 with only six Democrats choosing to support it. 48 conservative Republicans ultimately voted against it based on the belief that it did not cut enough spending.

“Assistance in the time of a natural disaster should not be a controversial issue,” Pelosi continued. “It hasn’t been before.”

While the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has a mere $215 million left in its disaster relief fund. Pelosi argued that the bill was not about paying for disaster.

“It was clear to us that this wasn’t about paying for the disaster but destroying an initiative that is jobs creating,” Pelosi charged.

Republican leaders are busy working towards a new resolution to fund FEMA and prevent a government shut down at the end of the fiscal year on September 30.

Click here to see photos from today’s briefing

Increasing Payroll Taxes Would Preserve Social Security, Say Dems

A group of four Democrats partnered on Wednesday to unveil legislation aimed at protecting Social Security benefits for America’s seniors.

Republicans have lately been citing government reports showing that the popular entitlement could run out of money by 2038, and most of the GOP candidates for President have embraced the idea of restructuring the program for younger Americans. Some Democrats, however, have argued that drastically reforming the program is a bad idea.

“Despite a lot of right wing rhetoric to the contrary, Social Security is not going broke and has not contributed one penny to our serious deficit problem,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)

(Click here to see photos from today’s press conference)

Currently, Social Security is funded through payroll taxes paid by employers and employees. The cap on annual income subject to the tax is $106,800. According to the Social Security Administration, the program currently has a $2.5 trillion surplus and the Congressional Budget Office has reported that it can pay out every benefit to every eligible American for the next 27 years.

The Keeping Our Social Security Promises Act, proposed by Sanders, Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) and Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) would strengthen Social Security’s coffers by applying the tax to any income generated over $250,000 per year. The concept, as noted by Sanders, was advocated for by President Obama back in 2008, who called for raising the payroll tax on wealthy Americans.

“This is a simple fix. It solves the whole problem in a way that should be embraced by everyone,” Boxer said.

Tension arose when a reporter asked the lawmakers to weigh in on President Obama’s recent proposal in the American Jobs Act to extend the payroll tax cut for another year.

“Do I think the middle class deserve a tax break in the midst of this horrendous recession?” Sanders asked. “I d, but I would very much prefer it not come from continuing the cuts that we’re seeing in the payroll taxing.”

Boxer, however, was adamant that the payroll tax cut bill has legislation built within it to restore funds. 

Yet as Boxer was defending the payroll tax cut, DeFazio was shaking his head in rejection of her claim that the funds would be restored.

“No more tax cuts,” Defazio declared angrily. “We have the economy that tax cuts will give us and it is pretty pathetic, isn’t it?”

Obama’s proposed extension of the payroll tax cut holiday has received criticism from both sides of the aisle.

Republicans Promoting Tax Increase On Middle Class?

Democrats joned together Tuesday to criticize Republican leaders for wanting to end a temporary tax cut for employees that could expire at the end of this year.

The tax break at issue is a 2% drop in the payroll tax paid this year by working Americans. The payroll tax funds Social Security. The reduction in the payroll tax rate from 6.2% to 4.2% was agreed to by congressional leaders and the White House last December as part of a short-term spending package. Employers, who pay a matching 6.2% rate, were left out of the deal.

Ironically, Republicans, who generally oppose any and all tax increases (and who generally consider the ending of a tax cut to be the same as a tax hike), have been warm to letting the cut expire on Janurary 1, 2012.

“We don’t need short-term gestures,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander, (R-Tenn.) recently. “We need long-term fundamental changes in our tax structure and our regulatory structure that people who create jobs can rely on.”

In addition to Alexander, House leaders Eric Cantor (R-Va.), Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) and Dave Camp (R-Mich.) have signaled opposition to keeping the tax break in place on the grounds that it is depleting Social Security funds. Camp and Hensarling will both serve on the new “super-committee” on deficit reduction that will convene after Labor Day.

GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney also recently weighed in on the matter, saying that he’d prefer to steer the tax break toward employers.

Though the administration estimates that the tax cut will end up costing the federal government around $120 billion in lost revenue this year, the White House has promoted extending it for another year to help out middle class families and individuals who are struggling financially as the nation’s economy continues to show no real signs of blossoming. Another year of paying the lower rate, Obama said, would mean that “families have an extra $1,000 to spend.”

Today, Democrats around the nation held a series of conference calls to hit the GOP over its stance on letting the cut sunset. New Hampshire state Rep. David Watters (D) called Republicans hypocritical due to their continued support of keeping alive the Bush tax cuts for even the wealthiest taxpayers.

“Many of the same Republicans who fought hammer and tongs to keep the George W. Bush income tax from expiring on schedule are now saying different temporary tax cuts should end as planned,” Watters told reporters. “By their own definition, that amounts to a tax increase on the middle class.”

“If you’re wealthier than 98 percent of the country, fly a corporate jet, represent a special-interest hedge-fund, Republicans will fight tooth and nail to make sure you are exempt from paying your fair share,” he added.

The question now is how GOP presidential candidates will respond to their party’s leaders. The next presidential forum is scheduled to take place in South Carolina on August 25. Candidates will debate again in Tampa on September 12.