What is the super committee?

In about 6 days — after the splendor of college football and its dressings of school fanaticism loyalty has dwindled — a new game will take place on a different field. A game where the person with the most points doesn't always win, and a field that doesn't have nice hash marks to track progress.

Good ol' political committee meetings.

Two teams of six will be meet to determine how the United States will cut up to $1.5 trillion dollars from its federal spending. They are being given an absurd amount of power to determine the future of U.S. spending for the next ten years. I don't know if the power is unprecedented, but it sure as hell is ridiculous. But more on that on in minute.

This will be the first meeting of the super committee that was created after President Barack Obama and the House of Representatives reached a "compromise" debt deal.

This committee is compromised of these fine people below (Democrats in blue, Republicans in red):

They look like they know what they are doing, right? I hope so, because they have to make a decision, or a set of triggers will take effect and cut $1.2 trillion balanced between defense and non-defense spending.

But, I'm getting a little ahead of myself there. I will be discussing the triggers soon, as well as exactly who these people are, but the focus right now is: What is the super committee?

Now, it is easy to say — as I did earlier — that the committee is a "bipartisan" group of people that are going to come up with a debt deal to further increase the debt ceiling while making the spending cuts mandated by the Aug. 1 deal. Which means for every dollar of debt ceiling increase, the committee has to cut funding somewhere to equal the ceiling increase.

So like any other committee, the politicians will meet, debate and ultimately decide on a deal to send to the executive office and congress. So they almost operate like any other congressional committee. In fact, because the committee is made up of senate and house members, it is commonly referred to as a joint committee.

However, this committee is a bit different. This is where the "super" comes in.

Once this committee has decided on what they want to vote through, the bill will go to congress for an up or a down vote. There are no amendments allowed, no filibuster opportunities and no House majority of the majority blocks.

I'm all for creating committees to take work together and create legislation, however I am completely against a small group of our elected officials having the power to create legislation that is effectively debate-proof. Once this committee decides on something (or one of the republicans or democrats defects and votes for their opposing party) it will be sent to Congress. Some may argue that it streamlines the process and this — combined with the pending triggers — will light a fire under the ass of the politicians to actually do something.

But, once that bill moves through, it puts EVERY OTHER PERSON we elected into a weird position. The people that moved into committees that oversee things like defense spending and entitlement programs will watch their authority usurped as a bill that they can't debate may or may not cut their spending. If that bill goes against their beliefs, they only get two choices — yes or no.



What this does is consolidate the authority over the purse strings of the United States to twelve people. Then, when these twelve people finally agree on something, they get to go to everyone else and say, "Are you with us or against us."

And, I bet any of you money, that this bill will be sent to congress right before the triggers take effect. That means the politicians will have to choose between what this committee decided, or let the unbiased triggers cut without consideration of a programs current budget or the current financial and political climate. What happens if both of those decisions are wrong? Too bad! No debate or no amendments.


While our political leaders may say this committee will create compromise, it will not. Limiting discussion limits compromise. I get frustrated with political maneuvering and our politicians not making decisions, but I would rather everyone we elect have an opportunity to contribute to the discussion of future tax increases or budget cuts.

So what is the super committee? It's an all-too powerful group of people limiting our congress from acting the way it was intended, which is fervent debate by ALL of our elected officials.

What about you? Do you think the committee has too much power? Not enough power?