RIP deficit supercommittee

As widely expected, the joint congressional deficit supercommittee threw in the towel and admitted that they could not reach a deal, opening the door to the automatic across the board $1.2 trillion in spending cuts starting in 2013. That's fine with me and will be a much-needed strong dose of medicine for what ails the federal budget. There will be plenty or more work to do on the federal budget in the coming months and years, but these automatic cuts are a great next step.

 

Although there is some chatter about reducing or redirecting some or all of the automatic cuts, there simply aren't the votes for such actions. In fact, President Obama has now publically stated that he will veto any such attempts to prevent the automatic cuts.

 

Some are criticizing Obama for not being involved in the supercommittee negotiations, but I would suggest that it was not his job and that he already did his job during the negotiations that set up the supercommittee back at the end of July.

 

Besides, I think Obama is making the wise political decision to distance himself a little from Congress to focus on his own reelection. It is now up to the American people to decide how to vote for Congress next year to refocus them as voters see fit.

-- Jack Krupansky