US Politics Feature: Can Super-Committee "Get It Done" on Debt Reduction? The Signs Say No

The "Super Committee"Next Thursday, the Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction --- the so-called Super Committee --- begins in earnest its search for $1.5 trillion or more in cuts to the national debt over the next ten years. Its first item, “Overview: Revenue Options and Reforming the Tax Code", will look at ways that the code can be simplified through the elimination of many tax "breaks" currently enjoyed by both individuals and corporations. No surprise there: proposals for tax reform, of varying scales, have been included in every deficit reduction plan that has appeared since the publication of the  Bowles-Simpson report in January, and both sides of the political divide have made noises over the past year that they are willing to consider changes in the way Americans are taxed to help stabilise the debt.

But that is as optimistic, for those who actually want to see the committee achieve its goal, as it gets these days in Washington. Already, the two political parties are staking the same rhetorical and ideological positions on revenues that soured the debt-ceiling negotiations back in July, talks that resulted in historic nationwide disapproval of politicians in Congress.

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US Politics Analysis: Obama Finally Talks of Jobs Fight, But Will He Last 15 Rounds?

If he does not fight for this plan with all the means at his disposal --- and that means no more conciliatory Mr. President ---  he will be deserted by droves of progressives for his latest betrayal of the Take Back the Dream movement. Conversely, if this speech marks the moment President Obama switched to a more confrontational style of politics, we are in for a rollicking fourteen months in Washington before the next election.

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US Politics: Latest in the Wisconsin Saga on Union Rights --- Recalling Senators Sets a Historic Precedent?

The result of the six recall elections today will have an impact on the short-term course of politics in Wisconsin. But their significance may lie more in their contribution to a growing participatory style of US politics. The intensive scrutiny of politics in Washington by outside interest groups and the media is not going to go away. With the increasing role of national politics in state affairs that attention engenders, it would be a surprise not to see more recalls, initiatives, and referenda take place.

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US Economy Special Analysis: America's Credit Rating is Downgraded --- And It May Happen Again

S&P have made it clear in their  press release that this downgrade could be just the first step, with a further reduction to AA if certain policy changes are not made in Washington. Thisis no surprise: S&P had warned since April that if no long-term plan to halt America's soaring debt was put in place, then a downgrade would be the response. Politicians in Washington ignored that caution, and it will be interesting to see how those same politicians will react to the conditions S&P are setting out to avoid a further downgrade.

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US Analysis: The Sham Cuts of the Debt Deal (and One Political Way to Deal with Them)

Imagine if a politician on the forthcoming super-committee, free of the constraint that dissent from his party's line would kill any chances forre-election, who felt free to act on his/her intellect and conscience. Then we might see something get done in the interests of the United States as a whole, where a spending cut really does mean a spending cut.

Surely if the President can be trusted to govern wisely while constrained by term limits, then Senators can. 

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US Opinion: Learning The Ideological and Political Lessons of "Armadebtdon 2011"

When a deal is finally reached on this occasion, who is optimistic that in a year's time, or a decade from now, politicians will have found a way to put aside partisan differences exacerbated by outside groups and face the tough fiscal choices facing the country?

Perhaps it is time for some changes in the way American government operates to meet the modern reality that compromise, on the important matters, is virtually impossible in Congress. Without them --- and it might be as simple, if controversial, as ending the filibuster --- it is impossible to see how Washington can avoid lurching from impasse to impasse.

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US Politics & Economy Analysis: It's Not the "Bizarro" Tea Party That is the Problem

There is an interesting narrative emerging from the contentious debt limit discussions in Washington: tesponsible politicians from both sides of the aisle have been blocked in their attempts to craft a successful deal by irresponsible, or in Senator John McCain's language, "bizarro" Tea Party politicians.

In the short term that is a fair assessment, possibly without the "bizarro", but in the long term it is a woeful explanation of the present inadequacies of Congress and the President in facing America's debt and deficit problems.

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US Politics Analysis: Darkness Before An Agreement on the Federal Debt?

With the usual disclaimer that it could all change tomorrow, there is hope that the adults in Washington can get beyond the "weasel" rhetoric and accusations of childishness to hammer out a deal that moderates on both sides can swallow as a necessary evil.

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US Politics Analysis: The Republicans' Damaging Myth of Lower Taxes = More Employment

Last week, President Obama finally showed some of the leadership over the issue that his critics have demanded. But his new engagement with the debt limit talks, and his desire for a long-term deal, have run headlong into the brick wall of the Republican insistence that spending cuts are the only acceptable means for cutting America's deficits. Even though virtually every moderate media observer is demanding some revenue increases as part of any meaningful deal and even though there is reason to doubt tax increases would be as harmful to the economy as conservatives maintain, Republicans seem prepared to hold this position to the point of breakdown.

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US Politics Analysis: Republicans Find the Strategy of a Balanced Budget Amendment

Back in early April, EA noted how “Republicans --- and that means all Republican senators in this case --- are threatening that they will only agree to raising the limit if this long-term solution to the debt problem is also passed". GOP Congressman saw a ”once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to enact the amendment, and “win a major victory for the American people and begin the process of stopping the massive spending, takeovers and debt that are destroying our country.”

The rhetoric used now to support the Amendment has not changed since then, and not one Republican senator has defected from the cause.

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