Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) is concerned that the Super Congress could do more harm than good, and his proposal for avoiding that
makes good sense. Greg Sargent:
Senator Jeff Merkley is worried. He fears that it's increasingly unlikely that the Congressional deficit "super-committee" will make a serious effort to incorporate job creation into its mission. Worse, he worries that some of its deficit-cutting proposals could actually do further harm to the economy.
Senator Merkley has an idea on what to do about this. He is calling on both parties to agree to submit every proposal offered by the supercommittee to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, to be evaluated for the impact it will have — on jobs.
He doesn’t want the CBO to evaluate the proposals just for their budgetary impact. Rather, he wants the CBO to reach a conclusion on the impact the proposals will have on unemployment, whether positive, negative, or neutral.
"We need to have every proposal that the super-committee brings out to have it scored by its jobs impact,” Merkley told me in an interview this morning. He plans to urge Democratic and GOP leaders to agree to this standard, and hopes to build a campaign to make it happen.[...]
"We need to have a 'no-harm' standard," Merkley says. "At a minimum, people on both sides of the aisle should be able to agree that the proposals do no harm to jobs."
"This will keep their feet to the fire and avoid a situation where their plan drives us into a deep recession or a depression," Merkley continues. "We must not repeat the mistakes of Europe, where austerity has driven the economy further into the ditch rather than pulling it out."
Sargent found precedent for the CBO measuring job impact of Congressional action, so this isn't an unreasonable idea, and would only take the agreement of the Super Congress leadership to achieve. This proposal could really ensure that jobs become integral to the committee's function, if the committee leadership will agree. It's a pretty damned smart idea, if this committee is actually going to help the nation's economy.
Thu Sep 15, 2011 at 10:11 AM PT: Sargent has reaction from top Democrats, and it's looking hopeful.
According to an aide to one of the Dems on the supercommittee, the supercommittee Dems have privately discussed supporting Merkley’s idea. [...]
The source tells me that some of the Dems are supportive, while several have not signaled support—meaning there’s no consensus yet.
It’s good to hear that the top Dems on the super committee—which include Reps Chris Van Hollen, Xavier Becerra and James Clyburn, and Senators Patty Murray, Max Baucus, and John Kerry—are at least discussing this idea.