With just nine days remaining for the supercommittee to find $1.2 trillion in debt reduction over the next ten years, The Hill notes that the tone of some of the members is cause for concern.
Sen.
Pat Toomey (R-PA), a member of the committee, said in an interview,
“It’s at a difficult point. I think we’ve got a ways to go, but I hope
we can close that gap.” Meanwhile, Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), another
member, said that his confidence was diminishing.
Meanwhile, The New York Times
reports that the supercommittee may kick the can down the road
and “decide on the amount of new revenue to be raised but would leave it
to the tax-writing committees of Congress,” the House Ways and Means
Committee and the Senate Finance Committee, “to fill in details next
year, well beyond the Nov. 23 deadline… That would put off painful
political decisions but ensure that the debate over deficit reduction
stretched into the election year.”
