Deficit super committee kicks off first meeting

US Debt-Reduction Super committee members: (top l-r) Republican Senators Jeb Hensarling, Dave Camp, and Fred Upton, and Representatives Jon Kyl, Pat Toomey and Rob Portman, (bottom l-r) Democrat Senators Patty Murray, John Kerry, and Max Baucus, and Representatives James Clyburn, Xavier Becerra and Christopher Van Hollen / AP

WASHINGTON - Republicans and Democrats on the special super committee warned of a financial crisis threatening future generations as the congressional debt reduction panel kicked off its work Thursday with an imperative to slash the deficit and lift the sluggish economy.

In a series of speeches, the six Republicans and six Democrats stressed the importance of compromise, shrugging off the bitter rhetoric of the summer's partisan brawl over raising the federal debt limit. That fight  ended with a hard-fought deal between President Barack Obama and lawmakers that created the super committee.

"I approach our task with a profound sense of urgency, high hopes and realistic expectations," said Rep. Jeb Hensarling, a panel co-chair. "Our task to achieve $1.5 trillion of bipartisan deficit reduction will not be easy but it is essential."

The Texas Republican said he will not "sit idly by and watch the American dream disappear for my 9-year-old daughter and my 7-year-old son."

Members of the committee insisted that all elements of the federal budget will be part of any final product. Democrats want a mix of spending cuts and revenue increases while Republicans say entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare should be in any deficit-cutting plan.

"A successful final product from this committee will not be one that any one of us would have written on our own - it will have to include compromises by all sides," said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the other co-chair. She noted that committee members have avoided drawing a line in the sand or identifying parts of the budget as off-limits.

Any changes in taxes or entitlement programs strike at issues critical to each party's voting base, a political reality for the super committee with next year's presidential and congressional elections already shaping the agenda.

Tea party-backed GOP Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania said the panel shouldn't shirk from tax reform - trading wasteful tax subsidies like the ethanol tax credit for lower rates on income.

He also pressed for corporate tax reform to ensure that large companies that use the code to dramatically reduce their levies pay at least some tax.

"When huge, iconic American corporations can pay little or no income tax, well that's indefensible," Toomey said. "So I think we ought to wipe out those special interest favors, have commensurately lower rates, encourage the economic growth that will generate more revenues, generate more jobs."

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., his party's presidential nominee in 2004, said the committee had to send a message that Congress was prepared to make the hard choices.

"We have to find not just common ground, but higher ground," Kerry said.

The panel is charged with finding, by Thanksgiving, $1.5 trillion in savings over the next decade. If it stumbles, or Congress rejects is plan, automatic cuts of $1.2 trillion over a decade would hit defense and domestic spending.

The committee proceedings were briefly interrupted by demonstrators who shouted "Jobs Now!" After the opening remarks, the panel approved its rules and wrapped up in an hour.

"Failure is not an option," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Wednesday. He said congressional leaders have appointed serious lawmakers to the panel, "and we fully anticipate they will meet their goals. And we'll see whether they can even go beyond that."

Many in Washington, though, are pessimistic that the panel will take a serious bite out of the nation's enormous $14 trillion in accumulated debt, especially with next year's elections approaching. They note that Democrats are ardently against cuts in expensive benefits like Medicare while Republicans are adamantly against higher taxes - the two most plentiful sources of potential budget savings.

"Politically, there's not a lot of motivation on either side" to produce a major package, said Chris Krueger, a political analyst for the brokerage firm MF Global.

Some Democrats on the supercommittee, though, said Wednesday that they want it to go even further and address voters' angst over the nation's stubborn unemployment problem. With the government reporting that the economy essentially stopped generating jobs last month, next year's presidential and congressional elections are pressuring lawmakers to do something about it.

"It's part of recovery," said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., a super committee member who said in a brief interview that he wanted the panel to tackle job creation.

"Growth will create revenue," which would help reduce the debt. "I'm not saying it will be easy, but it should be addressed," he said.

None of the Democrats specified what job creation program they might favor.

Part of that answer might come Thursday evening when Obama delivers an address on jobs to a joint session of Congress. He is expected to propose extending a reduction in the payroll tax that will otherwise expire, giving tax incentives to companies that hire the jobless and boosting spending on public works.

Republicans would be likely to oppose adding spending to the committee's debt-reduction effort.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., a super committee member, said debt reduction would create jobs because reducing the federal debt would help the economy grow.

"Overspending has really spooked the markets and made it more difficult for employers to have confidence to invest and hire people and create jobs," Camp said in an interview.

Under the debt ceiling agreement, which narrowly averted a potential federal default, Congress must approve at least $1.2 trillion in savings by Christmas. If it doesn't, the difference would be made up by automatic spending cuts, divided evenly among defense and many domestic programs.

Behind the scenes, the super committee's work has already begun. Republicans and Democrats each held closed-door, daylong strategy sessions on Wednesday. Boehner, R-Ohio, attended part of the GOP meeting, highlighting the importance of the panel's work.

Democratic aides to the House Ways and Means Committee have produced documents listing possible options for revenue increases and savings from health care programs, including many that were discussed in previous deficit-reduction talks.

The options, which a Ways and Means spokesman said have not been discussed by lawmakers, include various tax increases on the wealthy, oil companies and businesses that transfer some assets overseas, and savings from Medicare, including trimming reimbursements to health care providers and gradually raising the program's eligibility age to 67 - which the documents call "a radical departure from current policy."

Though he has no formal role in the super committee's work, Obama plans to soon give the lawmakers his own debt-reduction plans.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Wednesday that the president's ideas will be "bigger, in fact, than has been mandated for the super committee."

A second public meeting of the committee is set for next Tuesday, when the head of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, Douglas Elmendorf, will explain how the government's debt got so huge.

[RobAla]

So we have more than 400 members of Congress to sit on their hands and wait for these 12? Did we send representatives to Congress to do nothing? Apparently.

President Obama's address to the nation was an ABSOLUTE TRIP!
Just prior to leaving office, President Bush had a stimulus package that did not help the economy. For the past 2.5 year, President Obama blew $100s of billions on stimulus packages and bailouts that did not work. Now he proposes a new $450 billion stimulus, and he states that if the Republicans will not "pass this bill, right now" they will be the cause of HIS 2.5 YEARS OF FAILED POLICIES NOT WORKING!
President Obama and other progressives have burdened American businesses with huge oppressive additional regulations and expenses - so that many business owners are having to put money aside for this nonsense rather than hire worker. BUT IF THE REPUBLICANS DO NOT PASS THIS BILL RIGHT NOW, PRESIDENT OBAMA IS GOING TO PUT THE BLAME FOR HIS FAILURES ON THE REPUBLICANS! WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP!!!
President Obama says that the $450 billion package will not add to the national debt, because he is instructing Congress (someone else) to figure out how to pay for it. WHAT A TRIP! He does not have a clue as to how to pay for it, so he is throwing Congress (even other Democrats) under the bus to figure out how to make $450 billion in cuts to pay for it. It is going to be hard enough for this Group Super 12 to come up with $1.5 trillion in cuts. Now they have to come up with another $450 billion?????? WHAT A TRIP - AND WHAT A LOAD OF BULL!!!!!
President Obama meet with union leaders to discuss his plan for two days, but he did not have the bipartisanship (the man does not have an ounce of bipartisanship within him) to even meet with Republicans at all prior to this speech. This was purely a political campaign speech dressed with a Presidential address bow on top. There was nothing Presidential about it - it was a campaign speech. The Republicans showed graciousness to even be in attendance, due to the lack of courtesy President Obama has shown them.

[636anton33]

Same old same old put people on this that are un employed and actually create a job!!

[rightbehind]

Shut the clowns down.

[ALBrainTrust13]

Obama Admin incresed discretionary spending 25%!!!

Obama signed EXTENSION of Bush Tax Cuts.

Obama OWNS THIS ECONOMY AND BUDGET.

[rightbehind]

Your right he does. Looks like the tax cuts are just as effective at creating jobs for him as they were in the republican bushco utopia. They work well for the wealthy and china.

[Anotheryahoo]

Deficit committee , Spend Spend Spend some more, Spend ! find some pork barrel projects spend, Spend, Spend some more and get into a needless war, spend,spend more and give away a bunch more to foreign countrys and spend, maybe spend some more. Spend. this is the last 10 years of both partys whose solution has been spend spend spend to everything.

[nomorelibs]

"10 years". This has been going on for almost a hundred years.

[mjlewis6]

I do not believe the Republicans will want to hear the Report of the Congressional Budget Office as provided by Douglas Elmendorf. The serious damage of the TWO Corporate TAX cuts of the Bush Administration while NOT FUNDING two wars BUSH initiated in Afghanistan and Iraq, should find a peculiar twist in his making the working man, retirees and granchildren pay for the extravagances of Bush/Cheney policies. Regardless of political sentiment, the fact that TAX SURPLUSES were making the 1st BUSH term in office easy was due to the CLINTON and REPUBLICAN CONGRESS balanced budget fix.

IT WAS UNDONE by REPUBLICANS, period.

So, when next NOVEMBER COMES...I am sure to reward the REPUBLCAN PARTY for its duplicity in dealing with the balanced budget since the 1990's and expanding CORPORATE BENEFITS in TAX CUTS and making NO HEADWAY in the destruction of American jobs by American businesses moving operations overseas.

Time to retire SPECIAL CORPORATE INTEREST REPUBLICAN Senators and Congressmen. Perhaps they would appreciate a new job as lobbyist for the foreign governments to which countries
they have already sent our jobs overseas.

[nomorelibs]

Good thing Democrats don't resemble any of these remarks. We'd be in serious trouble.