The Not-So-Super Committee

Last summer’s debt ceiling debate left a lot of us shaking our heads and wondering how our government got so off track. To solve the deadlock in Congress, leadership cut a deal. A team of Senators and Representatives formed a special committee to tackle our country’s mounting debt and deficit. Michigan was lucky to have two voices in the negotiations; Republican Speaker John Boehner appointed Congressmen Dave Camp and Fred Upton to the committee.

Unfortunately the Super Committee, tasked with cutting $1.2 trillion from the federal budget over ten years, turned out to be more Clark Kent than Superman. The twelve members, specially picked by leaders in the House and Senate to transcend partisan politics, proved just how bad things have gotten in Washington by failing to reach a deal because of partisanship and politics.

Rep. Camp wasted no time pointing fingers after the committee failed to reach consensus, “it is deeply regrettable that my Democrat colleagues could not see their way to addressing these much needed reforms without at least $1 trillion in job-killing tax increases on families and employers.” With attitudes like this how could anyone expect the Super Committee to succeed?

We at Michigan League of Conservation Voters suggested the committee members take a look at the 2011 Green Scissors Report, which has ways to cut $380 billion in environmentally dubious budget items from the federal deficit. That’s nearly one-third of the Super Committees target over the next four years instead of ten. Cutting even some of the $61 billion in dirty fossil fuel subsidies that go to some of the most profitable companies in the history of the planet would help bridge the budget gap.

While eliminating over a trillion dollars from the federal budget is no small task, it is disappointing to see that the Super Congress failed to get anywhere close to a deal. This country’s revenue and spending problems are not going away, however we strongly encourage lawmakers to use the Green Scissors approach as a guide to cutting environmentally and economically unsustainable budget items.