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Here’s today’s supercommittee cartoon pick. It’s not clear which is the Democrat and which is the Republican as the cat clearly isn’t even trying while the dog is at least making it look as though he is, though he probably really isn’t.
From the Steve Kelly archive at The New Orleans Times Picayune.
It’s hard not to think that, with the failure of deficit reduction supercommittee to come up with any deal of any kind over the last few months, elected officials in Washington have set themselves up for an even bigger failure over the next year.
While they may take comfort in the idea that they’ve hardened their positions on spending and taxes in advances of the elections a year from now, they’ve overlooked the possibility that this may be a very different nation next November with the electorate perhaps, finally, ready to “throw all the bums out”.
If you thought that the supercommittee had intractable problems, look what lies dead ahead:
Getting Congress and the White House to agree on extending any of these provisions will not only be quite a challenge, but it will affect the overall budget picture and the looming 2013 sequestered cuts. But, letting all of these measures expire will cause the U.S. economy to take a big hit, as much as one full percentage point of GDP growth or more.
And as the 2012 elections heats up, the nation will be dealing with two looming crises:
I think it’s safe to say that, as far as partisan wrangling and the potential for this to create more financial market calamity, “you ain’t seen nuthin’ yet”.
Clearly, in retrospect, choosing the name “supercommittee” was a mistake for the group of 12 elected officials who tried to come up with a plan to reduce the budget deficit over the last few months and word today that they have officially failed at their task should provide another week’s worth of inspiration for cartoonists. Here’s my favorite so far:
From the Mike Keefe archive at the Denver Post.
It looks as though the deficit reduction supercommittee is going to fail to provide any proposal to Congress aimed at reducing the pace at which the nation accumulates debt. Here’s the Daily Show take on the subject from last week.
The Bush-era tax cuts are apparently the biggest issue now separating the two sides and, in this CNN report from just a few hours ago, supercommittee co-chair Washington Senator Patty Murray says “there’s no deal in sight”.
Well, it seems that the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street movement might just have discovered some common ground in Memphis, Tennessee, at least according to this Associated Press report from a few hours ago.
Occupy Memphis member Mallory Pope had just finished telling a group of about 75 tea party followers Thursday night that politicians should not allow themselves to be influenced by lobbyists and unions when she received an unexpected invitation.
“It sounds to me that y’all ought to be joining us,” said Jerry Rains, a 64-year-old computer programmer and tea party member. “You have a lot of the same goals we have, which is to take our country back.”
Pope and fellow Occupy Memphis protester Tristan Tran had a lively, sometimes strained and confrontational, but mostly civil discussion with members of the Mid-South Tea Party at a municipal meeting hall outside Memphis.
The factions saw eye-to-eye on some issues and clashed on others. And, while the young speakers didn’t change many minds, they did earn praise from the tea party members for their passion, honesty and courage.
The 21-year-old University of Memphis students had been invited by the tea party group to talk about the goals of the Occupy movement. The invitation was extended after a discussion between members of both groups on the tea party’s website, meeting organizer Jim Tomasik said.
At least they’re talking and, given the dim prospects for any substantive improvement in the U.S. economy, they’re likely to talk more and more in the years ahead, hopefully culminating in a third political party. No, that’s probably just wishful thinking.
Central bankers in the U.S. and the U.K. are no doubt shaking their heads at the reluctance of the European Central Bank to crank up their printing press and buy bonds for the greater good. Here’s the latest from Reuters on the never ending debt crisis across the pond.
A Reuters poll conducted yesterday indicated an even-money chance that the ECB will print money sooner rather than later, though, that’s not likely if the inflation-wary Germans have their way. Due largely to their little Weimar experience of 90 years ago, the Germans are about the only ones on the planet who still fear something might go terribly wrong down the road if the central bank was given a free hand in solving Europe’s debt troubles.
By Tim Iacono, Since 2005
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