Is the supercommittee making any progress?
Get the latest intel on Washington's fiscal woes.
CloseAs the supercommitte continues its closed-door meetings, many insiders remain unhopeful, even pessimistic, that the panel will be able to meet its objective – reaching an agreement to cut the deficit by at least $1.2 trillion over 10 years.
Formed as part of the agreement to raise the debt ceiling, all eyes are on the supercommittee as the November 23rd deadline quickly approaches. Unfortunately, the same problems that led to the break down of a grand bargain on deficit reduction during the debt ceiling talks are hamstringing the current discussions. Members of both parties continue to talk past each other, unwilling to budge as millions of Americans sit out of work.
The Associated Press reports:
After weeks of secret meetings, the 12-member deficit-cutting panel established under last summer’s budget and debt deal appears no closer to a breakthrough than when talks began last month.
The reason? A familiar deadlock over taxes and cuts to major programs like Medicare and the Medicaid health care program for the poor and disabled.
The two parties have equal strength on the panel, which has until Thanksgiving to come up with a plan to submit for up-or-down House and Senate votes in December. That means bipartisan compromise is a prerequisite for a successful result.
Thus far, say aides to panel members and other lawmakers, neither side has demonstrated the required flexibility in the super-secret talks.
Regardless of the panel’s progress, many in Washington are unhappy with how the supercommittee is handling itself. As other Congressional committees prepare to submit their recommendations to the supercommittee on Friday, lawmakers and insiders on both sides of the aisle are calling for the discussions to be more transparent. We agree. As the group responsible for some of the most important decisions regarding the country’s financial future, the American people have every right to know what is being considered.
The New York Times explains:
[A] powerful Congressional committee seeking ways to reduce the federal budget deficit has managed to produce a rare bipartisan consensus: Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives in and out of Congress say the panel is doing too much of its work in secret.
The panel….has held two public hearings, one on spending and one on taxes, but has not taken testimony from the public.
Members of the committee often skitter away from journalists who wait outside their meetings, held up to seven hours a day.
Some panel members have met with lobbyists for groups trying to protect the benefits, contracts and tax breaks they receive from the government. Advocacy groups like the Sunlight Foundation and the Brennan Center for Justice have urged the panel to disclose such meetings, saying voters have a right to know who is lobbying for special treatment.
I was in the grocery store the other day and not to my surprise but this lady was buying groceries with an EBT card. She had false fingernails and a cell phone in her hand while paying. How can she afford this when she has food stamps. Let’s stop giving people money when they spend friviously on things that aren’t important — like fingernails and cell phones. HELLO….is anybody watching these folks???
I was in the grocery store the other day and not to my surprise but this lady was buying groceries with an EBT card. She had false fingernails and a cell phone in her hand while paying. How can she afford this when she has food stamps. Let’s stop giving people money when they spend friviously on things that aren’t important — like fingernails and cell phones. HELLO….is anybody watching these folks???
I was in the grocery store the other day and not to my surprise but this lady was buying groceries with an EBT card. She had false fingernails and a cell phone in her hand while paying. How can she afford this when she has food stamps. Let’s stop giving people money when they spend friviously on things that aren’t important — like fingernails and cell phones. HELLO….is anybody watching these folks???
Watching the People who are using Food Stamps have to meet a criteria; but that is not the issue. Let us look at the those in Government; elected or non-elected because they have made the rules that legislate the criteria for those people to whom Food Stamps are given. Also, we as the American People must become a moral people again, to know the right from wrong and live that standard.
Watching the People who are using Food Stamps have to meet a criteria; but that is not the issue. Let us look at the those in Government; elected or non-elected because they have made the rules that legislate the criteria for those people to whom Food Stamps are given. Also, we as the American People must become a moral people again, to know the right from wrong and live that standard.
Watching the People who are using Food Stamps have to meet a criteria; but that is not the issue. Let us look at the those in Government; elected or non-elected because they have made the rules that legislate the criteria for those people to whom Food Stamps are given. Also, we as the American People must become a moral people again, to know the right from wrong and live that standard.
@Susan, while I agree, something like that just isn’t even realistic to “police” and would create a bureaucratic nightmare agency. As well as that’s a judgement, what if she’s a receptionist and needs to have nice nails for her job and what if here job pays for or requires a cell, or she has no home phone like many.
However, what I can 1000% support that’s EASY is limiting what can be purchased with EBT cards. Stupid crap like junk food, candy, soda, and “luxury” items like shrimp, crab, lobster, ect is not helping someone stay alive and has no business being paid for by the tax payers. I personally think that EBT should simply be replaced with an expansion of the WIC program. You get necessities, grown/produced by American fams and food service companies. Might as well have tax dollars going to support the American food industry and limiting it to at least moderately nutritious food. This would also have the benefit of theoretically making the poor a little healthier which would decrease medicaid costs and eventually medicare costs.
But that’s too common sense so it’ll never fly.
@Susan, while I agree, something like that just isn’t even realistic to “police” and would create a bureaucratic nightmare agency. As well as that’s a judgement, what if she’s a receptionist and needs to have nice nails for her job and what if here job pays for or requires a cell, or she has no home phone like many.
However, what I can 1000% support that’s EASY is limiting what can be purchased with EBT cards. Stupid crap like junk food, candy, soda, and “luxury” items like shrimp, crab, lobster, ect is not helping someone stay alive and has no business being paid for by the tax payers. I personally think that EBT should simply be replaced with an expansion of the WIC program. You get necessities, grown/produced by American fams and food service companies. Might as well have tax dollars going to support the American food industry and limiting it to at least moderately nutritious food. This would also have the benefit of theoretically making the poor a little healthier which would decrease medicaid costs and eventually medicare costs.
But that’s too common sense so it’ll never fly.
@Susan, while I agree, something like that just isn’t even realistic to “police” and would create a bureaucratic nightmare agency. As well as that’s a judgement, what if she’s a receptionist and needs to have nice nails for her job and what if here job pays for or requires a cell, or she has no home phone like many.
However, what I can 1000% support that’s EASY is limiting what can be purchased with EBT cards. Stupid crap like junk food, candy, soda, and “luxury” items like shrimp, crab, lobster, ect is not helping someone stay alive and has no business being paid for by the tax payers. I personally think that EBT should simply be replaced with an expansion of the WIC program. You get necessities, grown/produced by American fams and food service companies. Might as well have tax dollars going to support the American food industry and limiting it to at least moderately nutritious food. This would also have the benefit of theoretically making the poor a little healthier which would decrease medicaid costs and eventually medicare costs.
But that’s too common sense so it’ll never fly.
ive seen so many kids do with out cause the parents traded them for drugs go back to the old days of comadties st least the kids will get something
ive seen so many kids do with out cause the parents traded them for drugs go back to the old days of comadties st least the kids will get something
ive seen so many kids do with out cause the parents traded them for drugs go back to the old days of comadties st least the kids will get something