Super committee: 10 days to deadline and no deal imminent
November 13, 2011|By Tom Cohen, CNN
http://articles.cnn.com/2011-11-13/politics/politics_congress-super-committee_1_tax-revenue-tax-burden-entitlement?_s=PM:POLITICSThey have been meeting for two months, poring over concepts and ideas already hashed out by three other groups over the past year.
But 10 days before their deadline, members of the so-called congressional "super committee" created to forge a deficit reduction deal indicated Sunday that they remain hung up on basic issues of tax and entitlement reform that have previously stymied agreement.
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"We've got to be willing to probably make some folks mad on both ends of the political extreme," Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia told the CNN program. "And you'll know this super committee is getting close if you hear folks on both ends of the political extreme scream the loudest, because that will show that there's actually movement being made."
Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma agreed, saying on CNN that a lack of leadership from the White House and top congressional Democrats and Republicans is preventing a compromise.
"That's what's so disappointing," he added.
The panel created under the debt ceiling deal earlier this year has until November 23 to reach an agreement on at least $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade.
If it works out an agreement, Congress must vote on the unamended plan by December 23. Failure to reach an agreement or gain approval by Congress and President Barack Obama would trigger $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts scheduled to take effect in 2013.
Hensarling said Sunday that the process will fail unless Democrats are willing to accept significant reforms to entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, the government-run health care systems for the disabled, poor and elderly.
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