Rooting for the Supercommittee to Fail

Regardless of the ballyhoo surrounding the possible failure of the congressional supercommittee, I have no such lament as the November 23rd deadline approaches.

Like Paul Krugman, who whose recent article in the New York Times, is titled, “Failure is Good“, I quite agree that failure of the deficit cutting committee is the best thing that could happen in Congress next week.

The committee’s task is to find budget cuts over 10 years worth roughly $1.2 trillion or about $100 billion a year.

Failure would trigger automatic cuts, half of which would will from the military and the other half from discretionary programs, excluding Medicare.

Republicans and Democrats on the supercommittee are now completely deadlocked, with the former seeking no tax cuts and the latter insist on taxes on the very wealthy.

Frantic efforts by congressional leaders to get agreement and expressed fears in the media about failure underlie the importance of the committee’s efforts.

Krugman writes:

Democrats see social insurance programs, from Social Security to food stamps, as serving the moral imperative of providing basic security to our fellow citizens and helping those in need.

Republicans have a totally different view. They may soft-pedal that view in public — in last year’s elections, they even managed to pose as defenders of Medicare — but, in private, they view the welfare state as immoral, a matter of forcing citizens at gunpoint to hand their money over to other people.

Like Paul Krugman, I hold this contrary view.  It is better, actually imperative, for the committee to fail. Why? Because the gulf between the parties cannot be bridged.

Yes, you heard me right.  It is better for the supercommittee’s efforts to end in utter failure and $1.2 trillion in automatic cuts to be implemented.

If it is coupled with allowing the Bush-era tax cuts to expire (assuming the President stiffens his spine), the nation will likely be on the way to economic recovery – as long as the Eurozone does not sink into a crazier mess.

The reality is that the nation needs more tax revenues, particularly from the very wealthy.  Our huge and growing national debts are mostly the result of these tax cuts on the rich at a time when the country became embroiled in two huge wars.

Will the Pentagon be gutted, as its backers claim in Congress?  Not at all. The Pentagon’s budget was $685 billion in 2010.  Could they save $50 billion a year?  Yes, they could, and should.

Curbing oversize weapons programs, shutting down far-flung military bases, winding down wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wars and cutting down on waste should be relatively easy for moderately clever people to do.

Ditto for the cuts in discretionary programs.  Medicare and social security cost of living increases should be trimmed and waste eliminated.

Any agreement by the supercommittee would simply find ways to not cut a thing and keep taxes historically low for the super wealthy.

So it is that I’m rooting for the supercommittee to fail.  That would be the best thing for America. What do you think?

Tags: Congress, debt, deficit cutting, Democrats, failure, Krugman, Republicans, supercommittee

Category: News and Opinion