Former CBO Director Doubts Supercommittee Can Prevent Further Decline

Former Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Director Robert Penner said Wednesday that he believes the Congressional supercommittee will be unable to prevent the U.S. government from facing a debt crisis similar to Greece.

Speaking at a meeting with the National Economists Club, Penner said he believes ideological differences between the group’s members will prevent them from finding the $4 trillion in savings Penner says are needed to stabilize the debt-GDP ratio.

“We will get enough from the committee to ease the pain from sequester but they wont make real structural changes,” Penner, who served in the CBO during the Reagan administration, said.

The supercommittee, a 12 member body evenly divided among party and chamber, is currently tasked with finding over $1.5 trillion in savings. If they are unable to advance a plan by late November, then $1.2 trillion in autmoatic cuts will be made among the U.S. military and domestic programs.