Many observers of the political scene suspected that the creation of
the congressional deficit-reduction supercommittee was just a sham to
allow legislators to increase the debt ceiling while giving the
appearance of being serious about long-term deficit reduction. With each
bit of news that trickles out of Congress, such suspicions are being
borne out.
The latest development on the subject, according to
Politico,
is that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), ranking Republican on the House
Armed Services Committee, “is vowing to ‘nullify’ part of a law that
would impose major military cuts if the deficit panel can’t reach a
deal.” In short, McCain wants to repeal the part of the debt-ceiling
deal that triggers automatic cuts to defense spending if the
supercommittee fails to reach agreement on its own plan to reduce the
deficit by $1.2 trillion over 10 years. (The law also requires
equivalent cuts in domestic spending, but McCain did not address that
matter.)
“If there is a failure on the part of the supercommittee,” McCain said
during a news conference yesterday, “we will be amongst the first on the
floor to nullify that provision. Congress is not bound by this. It’s
something we passed. We can reverse it.”