'Super Congress' Is a Scam Designed to Force Cuts To Popular Programs and Keep Taxes On The Rich Low

[marmar]

AlterNet / By Joshua Holland

The 'Super Congress' Is a Scam Designed to Force Cuts To Popular Programs and Keep Taxes On The Rich Low
Ignore all the process stories about the vaunted Gang of 12 -- here's how the endgame plays out.

August 11, 2011 |


In the months ahead, we're going to be treated to an endless parade of process stories about the Gang of 12 “super congress” that emerged from the debt ceiling deal. Each time a staffer leaks some bit of trivia about the internal machinations of this opaque committee, the Beltway media will write a flurry of stories about it, lawmakers will signal whether they might support this provision or that one and the pundits will sift through the tea leaves trying to predict whether this time the kind of “grand bargain” the Washington Post editorial board lusts after will finally come to pass.

It will all be a piece of Kabuki theater. The way this deal ends is fairly easy to predict – it's a set-up that will result in fairly deep cuts to domestic spending, won't raise taxes on the wealthy and will leave “defense” spending largely untouched – a process that will force cuts to important public services.

In the real world, here's the end result of that ludicrous battle over the debt ceiling: Tens of thousands of vulnerable people will lose health coverage, funding for Head Start will be cut, thousands of low-income students will be denied an education, and many more public sector workers will be added to the unemployment rolls. Neither the environment nor our decrepit 19th-century infrastructure will get their needed funds.

Many of the budget changes on the way will be highly unpopular, but no member of Congress will have to cast a vote on them. The social safety net won't be protected, but lawmakers will be – none will face their constituents' ire. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/economy/151993/the_%27super_congress%27_is_a_scam_designed_to_force_cuts_to_popular_programs_and_keep_taxes_on_the_rich_low/

[chelsea0011]

1. Anything they come up with still has to voted on by the House

The only way anything goes through is if it is all cuts. And tea baggers may still not vote for them if the triggers are more draconian.

[angstlessk]

3. maybe they will go chcken all the way and just have yea or ney vote

and the yeas have it!

[madrchsod]

2. shit everyone knows that....

hell, they`ll be selling favors to the highest bidders and it ain`t going to be the people.

[Scuba]

4. And the incumbent from your district can make sure none sticks to him/her. n/t

[Locrian]

5. wtf?

How is this even allowable constitutionally?!

[Igel]

7. People are funny.

They were champing at the bit to find ways for Obama to have authority to usurp authority and duties clearly granted to the Congress and nowhere assigned to the president.

But when the Constitution say that the Congress can make its own rules, they stare blankly at any bright light. Congress decided that its rules allowed the appoint of a joint committee (not a new interpretation of the rules, by any means); and then he amended its rules to limit its ability to filibuster, granting any recommendation a simple up/down vote. This decision was duly debated, subject to amendment and filibuster (at least in principle), so all the niceties were met.

You can't say it's allowed just because it's not prohibited. Congress can write its own rules. These are the rules Congress wrote. It's on much surer Constitutional grounds than arguing from necessity ("Anything that the president needs to do is Constitutional" usually rings hollow) or from silence ("Unless the Constitution prohibits it, it's allowed to the President" also rings hollow).

[bemildred]

6. Ya think? nt

[Marnie]

8. The Carrion Eaters Comittee was obviously preplanned

and kept very secret.
It is virtually impossible that this complex legislation was conceived, written, researched discussed anmong and between party leaders in the last 24 to 48 hours that was pretended.

Obama had to have been in on the planning, all the while keeping Americans quiet by claiming he wanted a "clean bill" or he would not have agreed to it so quickly.

What I am saying is that Obama needed the Republicans to hold out until the last 24 to 48 hours so that he could spring the already planned Carrion Eaters Committee (they will allow the ill, disabled and elderly to die early and use the SS and Medicare savings that result to be siphoned off into their own pork. Soulent Green Obama care.

I actually am beginning to miss Duhbya, his stupidity made him dangerous but not nearly as dangerous as the highly intelligent heartless Obama. A man who feels not loyalty to his nation or its people or its history.

Hey, he thinks Lincoln keep Blacks in slavery in the North was just good politics. He has no moral compass. Duhbya is just a brain fried drunk with a rich daddy.