Reply #1: Triggers and Commissions

[chill_wind]

Senator Olympia Snowe, a Maine Republican, said the trigger is essential to a deal. “You have to have it,” she said. “That does tie to whether or not Treasury securities are downgraded by the ratings agencies,” she said.

That it somewhat directly contradicted here:

Even if the parties can reach agreement to avoid a possible default on Aug. 2, Congresses have repeatedly ignored or overridden automatic cuts dictated in previous legislative agreements.

For that reason, budget and credit rating experts are skeptical of the device, and they are even more critical of the call in both the House and the Senate for identifying future cuts through a newly created bipartisan committee -- another Washington mainstay that can’t guarantee any real impact.

Debt Plan Spending-Cut ‘Trigger’ Has Failed in Past (Bloomberg)
July 29, 2011, 11:48 AM EDT
By Heidi Przybyla


And a little more regarding the commission stuff (but McConnell says stop saying that! it's a committee!)


"Formulating an effective way to hold Congress to its promises to make the choices required to slash trillions in spending in the next decade is key to satisfying demands by credit rating services like Standard & Poor’s for a credible commitment to taming the long-term debt.

Without enforcement powers, any new bipartisan committee may not be taken seriously on Wall Street and by ratings agencies, said David Ader, head of government bond strategy at Stamford, Connecticut-based CRT Capital Group LLC.

Toxic Term

At least three commissions in the past year have failed to offer a plan that gained traction, including Obama’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, a group of six senators often called the “Gang of Six,’’ and a bipartisan panel of lawmakers led by Vice President Joe Biden.

A reference to a “bipartisan deficit commission” has become so toxic in Washington that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, admonished reporters who used the term, insisting they call the proposed new panel a “committee.” That hasn’t diminished the skepticism."



But both sides have sure seemed bipartisanly hell-bent on the commission stuff.