Politics beats progress as debt committee fails

Tomorrow's Observer editorial:

Let’s get the blame out of the way.

There’s plenty to pass out, now that the bi-partisan congressional supercommittee meekly conceded Monday that it was unable to do its job of trimming $1.2 trillion from the deficit over 10 years. That failure has markets dipping, credit agencies stirring and citizens wondering if our lawmakers could agree at this point on the color of the White House.

Republicans will take most of the public scorn for the failure, and rightly so. Although GOP moderates signaled a late willingness to peek out of their no-tax trenches and consider some revenue possibilities, they ultimately were unwilling to propose what most Americans said they wanted – an agreement with a blend of serious spending cuts and higher taxes.

Democrats contributed to the failure, too, shamefully disregarding a last-minute path to possibilities offered by Republican Sen. Patrick Toomey of Pennsylvania. Toomey proposed raising $250 billion over the decade by reducing many itemized deductions and adjusting tax rates so that tax increases would fall on the top two brackets. The $250 billion was barely a start, but it was certainly a breakthrough for the conservative side of the supercommittee. Democrats, apparently confident they will win the PR battle that comes with failure, ignored it.

Finally, let’s not spare President Barack Obama, who characteristically chose to cluck his tongue disapprovingly at the two sides, rather than taking the political risk of leading them toward a solution.

Where does that leave lawmakers? When their arms are worn out from finger pointing, they have important and urgent work to do. Among the other items the supercommittee didn’t accomplish was extending a 2 percent payroll tax cut and continuing unemployment benefits for people who have been out of work for more than six months. Both are set to expire at the end of the year.

Neither item is popular with Republicans, but most economists agree that extending both would add a percentage point or two to economic growth next year. Given the economic instability in Europe, that percentage point or two could be what prevents us from another recession next year, some economists warn.

There’s murmuring in Washington that Republicans might hold the payroll tax and unemployment extensions hostage by linking them to a bill that would exempt defense from the $1.2 trillion in cuts that are automatically triggered by the supercommittee’s failure. That would be a mistake. Although that $1.2 trillion “sequester” is an indiscriminate chop that doesn’t address our underlying entitlement and tax rate problems, the cuts are at least an acknowledgment of the pain that will only worsen if we run away.

That’s what happened Monday with the supercommittee’s demise. Politics again beat progress. Ideology again trumped what was best for our country. Meanwhile, U..S. debt topped $15 trillion last week, and the problem grows frighteningly larger, as does the gap our leaders must bridge to solve it.