Five months ago Congress agreed to form a bipartisan committee to tackle our fiscal deficit

[David Gill]

A preview of December? We can only hope!

Good afternoon,

Over five months ago Congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle agreed to form a bipartisan committee to tackle the issue of our fiscal deficit. They agreed that if this committee’s recommendations were not passed by the end of this year that automatic cuts would be made to defense and discretionary programs. In the subsequent months, the spirit of agreement and compromise that began these talks quickly vanished as leaks of the discussions made their way to embattled partisans.

The media blames both sides equally for what followed. That’s an appealing story. It sounds fair and is the safe thing to say. However, though I don’t agree with every faction of my party, I think it’s clear to the American people there has consistently been one side that’s shown a willingness to compromise in this process. Democratic members of the committee reluctantly accommodated the Republican pledge against increased revenues. Democrats agreed to put extension of the Bush tax-cuts on the table as a show of good faith, despite ultimately receiving nothing in return. I reject the characterization of each parties as duplicitous in this failure.

These recommendations are the capstone to what has been an entire year dominated by a Republican willingness to subvert serious discussion. Their Senate leader launched the new Congress by saying his party’s number one priority was not jobs or the economy, but preventing my reelection. They decided to risk this country’s good credit for an opportunity to amuse the most radical members of their base. They took what was a mandate from voters to cut the deficit and perverted it into a call to slash Medicare and hand money to the rich. They took this committee’s proceedings as seriously as they took their other responsibilities and have once again passed the job of governing along to someone else...

http://www.politicsundelivered.com/2011/08/look-into-future.html">Click here to read the full speech.