Super Congress getting even more super powers in debt deal!
WASHINGTON - July 31, 2011 - In order to shore up GOP support for a deal to raise the debt ceiling, Senate Democrats are exploring ways of giving the proposed "super Congress" even greater super powers, according to multiple news reports and congressional aides with knowledge of the plan.
Under the new proposal, if the new legislative body, made up of six Democrats and six Republicans from both chambers, doesn't come up with a bill that cuts at least $1.5 trillion by Thanksgiving, entitlement programs will automatically be slashed.
Under the reported framework, legislation the new congressional committee writes would be fast-tracked through Congress and could not be filibustered or amended.
The parties have been negotiating the particulars of cuts that would be enacted if budget-cutting legislation coming out of the super Congress could not get passed, deciding roughly how much in cuts would come from different parts of the federal budget, including defense spending and entitlement programs like Medicare.
According to sources and a number of reports, the parties were settled on an equal split between cuts to the defense budget and trims to Medicare providers, which in theory would spare Medicare beneficiaries.
Last weekend, Huffington Post reported on the extraordinary powers being delegated to the emerging super Congress, but most beltway media have largely dismissed the group as just another Washington commission.
On Sunday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kent.) and his counterpart, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) sought to disabuse everyone of that notion.
"The joint committee - there are no constraints," Reid said on the Senate floor. "They can look at any program we have in government, any program. It has the ability to look at everything."
