GOP And Democratic Super-Committee Chairs Spin Negotiation Meltdown On Sunday Talk Shows
The Congressional Super-Committee which rose out of last summer’s debt deadlock in Congress has a deadline approaching, and it appears nowhere near cutting a budget deal with hours to the deadline. With that in mind, both the Democratic and Republican chairs of the committee– Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Jeb Hensarling, respectively–took to the Sunday talk show circuit to explain their impending failure, with Sen. Murray blaming Republicans for not having a mentality of “shared sacrifice” while Rep. Hensarling argued Democrats wanted to raise taxes exorbitantly.
On Fox News Sunday, Rep. Hensarling all but confirmed that the super-committee’s work would amount to nothing. “No one wants to give up hope… reality to some extent is starting to overtake hope,” he told a skeptical Chris Wallace. The latter asked several times whether this was a confirmed failure (“we’re not going to give up hope,” Rep. Hensarling repeated), and noted the clear point that this was a “missed opportunity” that rang particularly unpleasant for the American people. Wallace also asked Rep. Hensarling whether it was “all the Democrats’ fault,” a bait that Rep. Hensarling didn’t entirely take.
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“It’s not about assigning blame,” he responded, “but we are not aware of any Democratic offer that did not include several millions in tax increases.” Most telling, perhaps, Rep. Hensarling answered a question about a future meeting not with an outright “no,” but indicated he would not be interested in a future meeting in this nature. He added that he could not see an agreement on health care, either, unless “you fundamentally figure out as a nation how we’re going to get quality healthcare opportunities at a price that doesn’t bankrupt our children.” He refrained from predicting how the stock market would react. Rep. Hensarling on Fox News this morning below:
Meanwhile, over on CNN, Candy Crowley asked Sen. Murray to comment on the mess. The Democratic chair stuck to her “shared sacrifice” talking point guns, being somewhat more optimistic than Rep. Hensarling in that she noted there were some points of agreement. That said, “there is one sticking divide,” she noted: the “shared sacrifice” issue, “where everyone contributes in a very challenging time for our country.” While she also didn’t see much to be optimistic about, she told Crowley that she would “be at the table willing to talk to any Republican… all night long; we have a few hours left.”
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She added that she believed it was a problem that would need to be solved at some point no matter what, with the super committee or not. When asked specifically why the negotiations had failed, she cited no Congressman in particular, but anti-tax personality Grover Norquist, and argued that Republicans were too faithful to a pledge he had made them sign against taxes. Her comments on the matter via CNN below:
While there are still a few hours left before the super committee is officially declared a failure, neither chair appeared particularly enthused about the chances of a deal, adding yet one more reason atop the many Americans already have for having given this Congress its lowest approval rating ever. Who is to blame and which chair has a better argument will likely fall upon party lines– though in his interview, at least Rep. Hensarling seemed to blame Democrats in Congress who were actually on the super committee and not marginal characters like Norquist– though watching both interviews, it is hard to see the American people mustering up any sympathy for any of their super-committee representatives at all.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
