GOP picks six for debt panel
WASHINGTON – Republican leaders in the House of Representatives and the Senate appointed six conservative lawmakers Wednesday to the so-called “super committee” that’s charged with finding ways to trim the federal deficit by more than $1 trillion by year’s end.
Analysts immediately suggested that the selections increased the odds that the panel will be unable to reach a compromise that can win Congress’ approval.
The six, along with three Senate Democrats whom Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., tapped Tuesday, bring a diverse knowledge of fiscal affairs to a committee created as part of last week’s deal that allowed Congress to approve a measure to raise the federal debt ceiling.
But they also carry some fixed beliefs that may make reaching compromise on spending cuts and tax issues difficult. Three more Democrats, to be selected by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., are to be named by Tuesday.
The Republican senators whom Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., named to the panel are Jon Kyl of Arizona, Patrick Toomey of Pennsylvania and Rob Portman of Ohio. Toomey and Portman are serving their first terms in the Senate.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, chose three experienced legislators: Republican Conference Chairman Jeb Hensarling of Texas, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp of Michigan and Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton of Michigan.
On Tuesday, Reid announced that Sens. John Kerry of Massachusetts, Max Baucus of Montana and Patty Murray of Washington state were his super committee choices.
Murray will serve as a co-chair of the panel, along with Hensarling.
In announcing his picks, McConnell said he was seeking “serious, constructive senators who are interested in achieving a result that helps to get our nation’s fiscal house in order.”
In a nod to the possibility that reducing the deficit might include both cuts in spending and additional revenue, McConnell said achieving that would mean “reforming entitlement programs … and reforming the tax code in a way that makes us more competitive and leads to more American jobs.”
Boehner called those he’d selected “proven leaders who have earned the trust and confidence of their colleagues and constituents.”
The Democratic and Republican congressional leaders said the lawmakers they’d selected could rise above political ideology to make hard choices and reach consensus. But some budget analysts and political experts expressed doubts Wednesday that the panelists can check their ideologies at the door.
“I’m not terribly hopeful, because you have people who’ve spent a career saying no cuts for entitlement programs or no new taxes,” said Robert Bixby, the executive director of the Concord Coalition. “I guess that gives them the Nixon-goes-to-China approach if they actually do come to a compromise, but you have some pretty strong anti-compromise voices on that panel so far.”