Lawmaker Says Super Committee's Success, Failure Won't Affect 2012 Election

By Andrea Salazar

Jared Bernstein, Vice President Joe Biden’s former economic policy adviser, and Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) said that the success or failure of President Obama’s Joint Select Committee will not affect the outcome of 2012 presidential election.

“There’s a group of folks in Congress who think that Congress dictates the results of a presidential election,” Mulvaney said. “I think the presidential election stands on its own, and I doubt seriously if the outcome, one way or the other, of the super committee is going to impact the outcome of the 2012 presidential election.”

Bernstein echoed Mulvaney’s sentiment, saying “people are already operating from the mindset that these guys can’t agree on anything.”

The super committee is tasked with making recommendations to Congress on how it can cut the deficit by at least $1.2 trillion over the next decade, but with its Nov. 23 deadline fast approaching, many are growing skeptical of the committee’s success.

“I don’t think its prospect for success is high,” Mulvaney said. “If I wanted to have new ideas about how to fix things in Washington, D.C., I’m not sure I would put Sen. John Kerry on the commission. That’s not exactly an influx of new ideas of how to fix problems.”

Pelosi Insists She Is Not Being Shunned By Super Committee

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) reassured reporters Thursday that she is not being kept out of the loop with a “super committee” that has begun meeting in more frequently in private with a Nov. 23 deadline fast approaching. 

“I don’t believe that I have been cut out of the super committee discussions,” Pelosi said. “The three people that we have sent to the table have my trust and confidence and that of our caucus.”

Pelosi, instead, called on the Republican leadership to provide their members of the super committee the same freedoms liberal members have. 

“I hope that the same discretion and judgement that I have respected my members with is one that is shared by my Republican colleagues,” she said. “I believe that if they have the same freedom, we have a better chance of getting the job done.”

Recent reports have indicated that various proposals aimed at reaching the committee’s goal of cutting the deficit by at least $1.2 trillion have been discussed privately. Though the House’s top Democrat insisted she was not being excluded from the deliberations, she did not stop short of criticizing the manner in which these discussions have taken place. 

“It cannot be a product of secrecy,” Pelosi said. “At some point, the discussion has to be more public.”

Hoyer Not Convinced Supercommittee Can Reach Deal

The November 23 deadline for the supercommittee to reach a deficit reduction plan is fast approaching and House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) has expressed apprehension over such a deal coming to fruition. 

“We need a big plan and I am hopeful that the committee will get there,” Hoyer told reporters at his weekly pen and pad session.

But when asked by a reporter why he was confident that the committee would reach a deal when reports have shown a lack of progress, Hoyer responded that he never said he was confident.

“Did i say I was confident? When people ask, ‘Are you optimistic?’ l say, ‘Look, I’m not optimistic,  I’m hopeful,’” Hoyer responded. “Time is short which doesn’t give you a lot of confidence but there is an honest working effort that makes one hopeful.”

Hoyer then clarified that he doesn’t have a lack of confidence that the Joint Committee will produce a bold and balanced agreement but an absence of confidence.

“An absence of confidence isn’t necessarily a lack of confidence,” Hoyer said.

The Joint Deficit Reduction Committee has been tasked with the daunting task to reach a bipartisan budget agreement that cuts $1.2 trillion over ten years by Thanksgiving. If they cannot, then there will be mass cuts among both military and domestic spending.

House Dems Urge Super Committee To See Past Gridlock, Pass Jobs Bill

By Andrea Salazar

House Democratic Caucus Chair John Larson (D-Conn.) called on the Joint Select Committee to break through the partisan gridlock that has become the new era of politics on Capitol Hill.

Following this summer’s debt ceiling debacle, the “super committee” was tasked by President Obama with cutting $1.5 trillion from the nation’s deficit over the next decade. The committee must reach consensus on where to cut spending by Thanksgiving before automatic cuts take effect. 

“This Congress by acting together, this super committee by coming together, could demonstrate, not only to the people of this country but everybody around the world, what we need to do,” Larson said. “I guarantee you that money and investment would then flow to this country because we would establish ourselves as a place where you can park your money, where you can do business and where we can create the kind of stability that we need.”

Fellow Democratic Reps. Kathy Hochul (N.Y.) and Charlie Gonzalez (Texas) echoed Larson’s concern for the “super committee,” and went even further, pushing Congress to move on the president’s jobs plan in its piecemeal form.

Hochul offered her endorsement for the upcoming infrastructure provision of Obama’s jobs bill, explaining that, in her home state of New York, the bill would have an immediate impact on those struggling. 

“I’m putting this Congress on notice that if something happens to one of my bridges and we had the ability through this jobs act to provide infrastructure money to fix my bridges…well I’m sorry folks, you were forewarned,” Hochul said.

Armed Services Chair: No Defense Cuts And No Tax Increases

By Adrianna McGinley

In a press conference Thursday, Republican members of the House Armed Services Committee announced the recommendations they’ll make to the Congressional supercommittee, primarily their desire to see no further defense cuts.

Armed Services Committee Chairman, Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), said defense has already taken more than enough cuts and no more will be accepted.

“One of the things we heard was that everything should be on the table, and while many of us on the Armed Services Committee didn’t agree with that, we understood where the American people were,” McKeon said. “I personally, and I think many members of the committee, feel that we have gone overboard on the cuts…defense was on the table, and in the first round, it took up half of the table.”

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) said more cuts would put the military in a position of having to choose where to engage and where not, putting national security at risk.

“I don’t think the American people understand, and they need to, what these defense cuts mean,” Hunter said. 

Rep. J. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) pointed out the effect cuts would have on the average American, saying if more cuts are implemented, using conservative estimates, there would be job losses exceeding the number of unemployed people in 13 different states combined.

When asked if tax increases would be accepted in place of defense cuts, McKeon said, “there is no one here who would vote for tax increases.” He added, “I don’t think it’s our job on this committee to do the super committee’s work of solving their problem … I don’t need to help them and try to give them ideas.”

Standing committees are set to formally present recommendations to the super committee tomorrow.