The flies in the Gang of 12 ointment
Anybody can take a guess—educated or otherwise—about who will be chosen for the Gang of 12. That's the so-called "super committee" that may or may not succeed in coming up with a plan to reduce the deficit. At the
Washington Post, Paul Kane
has now come up with a list that is as good (or bad) a guess as anyone's.
Given the no-new-taxes-of-any-kind-at-any-time remarks of luminaries such as House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and House Speaker John Boehner, the possibilities of "success" will depend on that vaunted "bipartisanship," has caused so much grief over the past 30 months since the Republicans decided to reject anything the Obama administration proposes.
We can count on the Republicans not to break ranks. So it's up to one of the six Democrats on the Gang of 12 to surrender to the nothing-but-spending-cuts approach and provide the needed seventh vote to get a no-filibuster proposal to Congress. What are the chances of such a cave? Depends on which Democrats are appointed obviously. So far, no list doesn't include some "flexible" Democrats. And that will mean, as Jed Lewison argued today, that President Obama will have to track down the veto stamp that's in his desk drawer somewhere.
By this time next week, Boehner, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry A. Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will each select three lawmakers for the committee. Seniority will matter. Here are the Post's guesses. In parentheses is the year in which the named person was first elected to the body where s/he currently serves:
Senate Democrats
Patty Murray of Washington (1992): Chairperson of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee; Committee on Appropriations; and Committee on the Budget, where she is next in line to serve as chair. Her role on the DSCC might weaken her chances.
Jack Reed of Rhode Island (1996): Committee on Appropriations; a senior member of the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs and a liberal without the "neo" preface.
Max Baucus of Montana (1978): Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, chairman of the Joint Committee on Taxation. His seniority gives him an edge but his conservative views on taxes, on bankruptcy, off-shoring of jobs and his role in health-care reform make him decidedly not a favorite of liberals hoping for any push back against the ultra-conservatives the Republicans will be putting on the super committee.
Kent Conrad of North Dakota (1986): Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee; serves on the Committee on Finance and the Joint Committee on Taxation. More conservative than most Democrats on social, environmental and most economic matters, he is a prominent deficit hawk who supports a balanced federal budget but also believes in increasing revenue with higher taxes on the wealthiest Americans.
Wild card: Benjamin Cardin of Maryland (2006): Committee on the Budget; Committee on Finance; Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. Cardin is a liberal with 20 years previous service in the House of Representatives.
Senate Republicans
Jon Kyl of Arizona (1994): Senate Minority Whip; Committee on Finance and ranking member on the Subcommittee Taxation and IRS Oversight. Fourth most conservative Senator, according to the National Journal. He co-introduced a Balanced Budget Amendment in January. He has referred to the United States as the next Greece if it doesn't cut spending.
Rob Portman of Ohio (2010): U.S. Trade Representative and director of the Office of Management and Budget under George W. Bush, Portman was on the Ways and Means Committee when he served in the House and is now on the Committee on the Budget. He is seen, by modern Republican standards, to be a moderate.
Jeff Sessions of Alabama (1996): Ranking minority member on the Committee on the Budget; considered the fifth most conservative Senator by the National Journal and known for various racist comments. He wants to make the Bush tax cuts permanent.
Wild card: Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania (2010): Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; Committee on the Budget; Joint Economic Committee. Based on his three terms in the House, he is extremely conservative and has backed additional deregulation of the financial industry. In 1999, he helped write the legislation that repealed the New Deal-era Glass-Steagall Act. He has supported cutting the capital gains tax, eliminating the estate tax and making the Bush tax cuts permanent.
House Democrats
Chris Van Hollen of Maryland (2002): Ranking minority member of the Committee on the Budget and vice chairman of the Democratic Task Force on Budget and Tax Policy. He has been noted for taking sides of workers, including federal workers, and introduced a bill to establish a "green bank" to finance clean energy projects. In 2007, he joined with others in accepting a Philadelphia group's challenge to try to live on a food-stamps budget for a month.
Allyson Schwartz of Pennsylvania (2004): Committee on the Budget and previously a member of the Ways and Means Committee. She has voted against lowering the capital gains tax and favors a "balanced approach" on reducing the federal deficit.
Xavier Becerra of California (1992): Committee on Ways and Means and the Subcommittee on Social Security; House Committee on Budget. He is the highest ranking Latino in the Democratic caucus and is its vice chair. He is a member of the Progressive Caucus and the Hispanic Caucus, and is a strong ally of Nancy Pelosi. He has backed increased benefits for the poor. (Full Disclosure: Becerra is my Congressman and I have voted for him 10 times.)
Norm Dicks of Washington (1976): Ranking minority member of the Committee on Appropriations. A defense hawk who favored the Iraq war but later changed his mind, Dicks is very familiar with the budget for the Pentagon and has many friends there.
Wild Card: George Miller of California (1974): Ranking minority member of the Committee on Education and Labor. He is a founder of the Progressive Caucus. Widely seen as Pelosi’s best friend in Congress, Miller can be found in the forefront of the fight on workers' issues, wrote an amendment increasing the minimum wage and has opposed cuts in the student financial aid.
House Republicans
Paul Ryan of Wisconsin (1998): Chairman of the House Budget Committee and serves on the Committee on House Ways and Means. The brains behind the Republicans' long-term budget proposal, "The Path to Prosperity." His "Roadmap to the Future" legislation would have eliminated Medicare, privatized Social Security, eliminated the corporate income tax, dumped the estate tax and raised taxes on 95 percent of Americans while reducing taxes on the wealthiest.
David Camp of Michigan (1990): Chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means.
Jeb Hensarling of Texas (2002): Serves on the House Committee on the Budget and the House Committee on Financial Services. Co-authored a constitutional amendment—the Spending Limit Amendment—that would prohibit federal spending from growing faster than the economy. Co-authored the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, which would tie overall tax revenue to inflation and population increases unless larger increases are approved by referendum.
Peter Roskam of Illinois (2006): Chief Deputy Whip; serves on the Committee on Ways and Means. He wants the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 made permanent and has sponsored 14 pieces of legislation to lower taxes.
Wild Card: Diane Black of Tennessee (2010): Serves on both the Committee on Ways and Means and the Committee on the Budget. She is a member of the Tea Party Caucus.
