Doomed to Failure: GOP Leadership appoints Grover Groupies to ‘Super Committee’

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

It's official — the really terrible idea of a bipartisan "Super Congress" or "Super Committee" is doomed to failure. Let's just call it right now and not waste any valuable time we do not have to waste on this farce. 

The TanMan, Weeper of the House John Boehner, and the "Septuagenarian Ninja Turtle" Mitch McConnell have made their appointments to the "Super Committee." Each of their appointments are Grover Groupies who have signed Grover Norquist's "no new taxes" pledge. Political Animal – Republicans announce ‘Super Committee’ selections:

House Speaker John Boehner said he’s tapped House Republican Conference Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, to serve as co-chair of the committee. He’s also appointing House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., to the committee, as well as House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said he’s appointing Sens. Jon Kyl, Ariz., Pat Toomey, Pa., and Rob Portman, Ohio. 

There aren’t any major surprises here — GOP leaders picked six very conservative white men; who would have guessed?

* * *

[L]et's take a moment to note some of the first thoughts after glancing at the new list:

* Jeb Hensarling is a prominent right-wing Texan who has a bad habit of saying dumb things. Given the nature of this panel’s work, it’s worth noting that Hensarling has described Social Security and Medicare as “cruel ponzi schemes.” He’s the GOP pick for co-chair of the committee.

* Dave Camp is the chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, and a rather generic Republican, though he does seem to believe working families don’t pay enough in taxes.

* Fred Upton was known as a relative moderate, until his party fell off the right-wing cliff, at which point he jumped, too.

* Jon Kyl is a far-right GOP leader who strongly believes Congress “should never have to offset” the cost of tax cuts, because the Tax Fairy magically ensures they pay for themselves. As part of the recent debt-reduction talks, Kyl ruled out any attempts to increase revenue and demanded $6 trillion in cuts.

[He also is a prominent right-winger who has a bad habit of saying dumb things, which he later excuses by claiming "it was not intended to be a factual statement."]

* Pat Toomey is the former head of the right-wing Club for Growth. He’s talked about privatizing Social Security; blames FDR for the Great Depression; and is on record comparing moderate Republicans to communists.

* Rob Portman used to serve as George W. Bush’s budget director. No, seriously, he really did. After pleading with voters to ignore his entire record in public life, Portman was elected anyway and now Republicans want him to help shape a debt-reduction plan.

If one of these six is likely to be reasonable and make the Super Committee a worthwhile exercise, I don’t see it.

This is a complete lack of good faith, In fact, it is more of the "f**K you" attitude we just saw during the federal debt ceiling debate for which Standard & Poor's downgraded the creditworthiness of the United States due to the partisan Tea-Publican intransigence on taxes and brinkmanship — taking America hostage to get their way for "no new taxes." Clearly no lesson has been learned. The Tea-Publicans are continuing with their destructive strategy that fails "to listen to the American people" as they are fond of saying.

Gallup asked Americans what they’d like to see Congress do next on debt reduction. The top response in the newly-released poll: “Increasing income taxes for upper-income Americans.” A large 66% majority endorsed this move, including 45% of self-identified Republicans. Political Animal – American mainstream calls for higher taxes:

A new CNN poll asked the same question. Guess what was the most popular debt-reduction idea? “Increases in taxes on businesses and higher-income Americans,” which was backed by a 63% majority.

A McClatchy/Marist poll (pdf) released yesterday found that 68% of Americans support raising taxes on income over $250,000. In this survey, a majority of self-identified Republicans supported the idea.

Bruce Bartlett, a veteran of the Reagan and Bush administrations, has an updated list of 23 polls — all from the last nine months — which all show the same thing: consistent support from the American mainstream for higher taxes. The list isn’t selected — Bruce highlights (and links to) every poll he could find on this, and in each case, the margin was about 2-to-1 in support of tax increases for the wealthy.

This clearly isn’t what the congressional GOP had in mind. They serve only multi-national corporations and the über-rich. They don't give a damn what Americans want.