Congressional 'super committee' falling short on an Agreement
Monday, November 21, 2011
As just as everyone expected, the congressional 'super committee' that is supposed to come up with $1.2 trillion in budget cuts seem to be stalled out. The deadline for a compromise is today, Monday November 21, 2011. The actual deadline for the final vote is Wednesday, but a so called 'blueprint' must be made available 48 hours in advance of a committee vote and must be accompanied by a Congressional Budget Office analysis scoring how much it would reduce deficits.
There are 12 members in the 'Super Committee' and out of the 12, at least 7 must approve of a plan so that it could be sent to the Senate and House in the form of a bill to be voted on in Congress. A failure to pass any agreement would result in $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts across much of the federal budget starting in 2013, evenly divided between defense and non-defense spending. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned Congress this week that such cuts could cripple the American military establishment.
So there you have it. Congress as a whole could not reach a viable debt deal, so the President of the United States formed this 'super committee, and out of the 12 people in it, not even a minimum of 7 needed to get a bill sent to the Congress could even come to an agreement. So what does this mean. Members of this super comittee agree that they didn't become part of the committee so that it would end in a "sequester" and there are still some last minute hopes. But an agreement must come up by the end of day today.
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